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SDljt Hiijcrsiific JLiteratttit Series 


THE LIFE AND STRANGE ADVENTURES 


ROBINSON CRUSOE 

OF YORK, MARINER ^ 



DANIEL DEFOE 


WITH AN INTRODUCTORY SKETCH AND NOTES 



HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

Boston : 4 Park Street ; New York : 11 East Seventeenth Street 
Chicago : 158 Adams Street 

Cambdbge 





Copyright, 1895, 

By HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 

All rights reserved. 


The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. 8. A. 
Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton and Company. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTEB page 

Introductory Sketch v 

Author’s Preface xx 

I. First Trial of the Sea 1 

II. A Captive among the Moors .... 18 

III. Escape from Captivity 25 

IV. The Voyage to Guinea 41 

V. The Shipwreck 50 

VI. The Raft 59 

VII. Unloading the Ship .*.... 65 

VUI. The First Habitation 72 

IX. Balancing Accounts 80 

X. The Journal 88 

XI. Exploration of the Island .... 135 

XII. Regular Life 140 

XIII. Building a Boat 156 

XIV. Monarch of All He surveyed . . . 162 

XV. A Voyage of Discovery 172 

XVI. His Animal Kingdom 182 

XVII. The Footprint . . . . . . . 189 

XVIII. The Fortification 204 

XIX. The Old Goat and the Cave .... 220 

XX. The Return of the Savages .... 229 

XXI. The Wreck 235 

XXII. The Longing for Escape 249 

XXHI. Man Friday . . 255 

XXIV. The Christianizing of Friday . . . 272 

XXV. Plans to reach the Mainland .... 287 

XXVI. The Fight with Cannibals .... 294 

XXVII. Robinson Crusoe and his Subjects . . . 308 

XXVIII. The Coming of Englishmen . . . . 318 

XXIX. The Fight with Mutineers 331 

XXX. Robinson Crusoe leaves his Island . . 355 




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INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. 


It is a fact whicli throws great light upon the mean- 
ing of literature that Daniel Defoe, the author of 
Hohinson Crusoe^ was as voluminous a writer as Sir 
Walter Scott, and yet his name is kept really alive by 
a single book. In this year of 1895 a new, carefully 
edited series of Defoe’s writings has appeared in six- 
teen volumes, but the editor has confined his selection 
to whole books ; in point of fact a list of Defoe’s writ- 
ings, confessedly incomplete, counts up at least two 
hundred and fifty books and pamphlets, and this does 
not take into account a great mass of newspaper writ- 
ing. The list includes several narratives, real and 
fictitious, in which the same sort of power is shown as 
one discovers in Hohinson Crusoe^ yet it is very clear 
that these narratives have but a curious interest for 
students of literature to-day, while the one great book 
is read by thousands upon thousands who do not think 
of it as literature at all. What is the explanation of 
this most interesting fact ? For a partial explanation 
we need to know something of the man behind the 
book, and it is not very difficult to trace the outward 
course of his life, though, in - spite of his unnumbered 
writings, it is by no means easy to get at the real man 
himself. 

We must bear in mind that Robinson Crusoe was 
not the early work of a writer. It was not, for ex- 
ample, like Two Years Before the Mast^ written by a 
young man at the beginning of his career and repre- 


vi introdu\:tory sketch. 

senting a youthful experience and a youthful spirit, 
to be followed by arduous labor in a profession. De- 
foe was nearly sixty years old when he wrote his 
famous book, and was broken by years of toil and 
trouble. He was born in London in 1659.^ His 
father and his grandfather before him wrote their 
name Foe, and apparently the form DeFoe or Defoe 
grew out of the signature D. Foe which the author 
used in the early years of his career. Daniel’s father 
was a butcher and a Nonconformist, who intended his 
son to be a minister, and placed him at school for this 
purpose. The boy continued in study with this in view 
until he was nineteen, when he abruptly turned aside 
from the plan to make him a minister and took up 
the trade of a hosier. His own explanation, later in 
life, indicates that he saw in the profession as then 
followed an ignoble set of men, too dependent on de- 
nominational aid and liable to be hampered in the 
free expression of their opinion. He was not forced 
out of the pulpit by any lack of religious feeling, for 
he appears to have remained through life a man of 
strong religious nature, but in all probability he felt, 
rather than clearly saw, as a young man, that his rest- 
less, impetuous spirit, and his sensitive temperament 
ill fitted him for a position calling for circumspect be- 
havior and repression of self. 

At the school where he was trained he had this ad- 
vantage, which he might have missed in more strictly 
academic centres, of being well drilled in the use of 
the English language, and inasmuch as the school was 
connected with a party which was political as well as 

1 This is the date given by Mr. Aitken, the latest biographer 
of Defoe, though Mr. Minto, who wrote the volume on Defoe in 
the English Men of Letters Series, makes the date 1661 . 


INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. vii 

religious, and the time of his youth was one of great 
strife in church and state, Defoe, instinct with a 
love of contention, quickly learned to be a pamphlet- 
eer and debater instead of a preacher of sermons. 
He began writing when he was about twenty-four, 
and his authorship seems to have been as early as his 
establishment in trade on his own account, and just 
previous to his marriage, which took place on New 
Year’s Day, 1684. 

It is well to look for a moment at the England of 
Defoe’s early manhood, for he was to play no unim- 
portant part in the affairs which marked the close of 
the personal monarchy and the establishment of con- 
stitutional monarchy. The rising tide of protest on 
the part of the great middle class of English people 
was nearing its flood when Defoe came into the use 
of his powers. The short-lived Commonwealth under 
Cromwell came to an end at the time of Defoe’s birth, 
but though the Stuart family returned to the throne, 
bringing with it a more or less open friendliness with 
the Church of Rome, the Protestant faith was more 
deeply established and had its stronghold in the mer- 
cantile class. King Charles II. had lived during his 
enforced absence from England in full view of the 
French court, and the absolutism of the French mon- 
arch was his ideal. He was not a man of religious 
feelings, and for policy he upheld the established 
Church of England, but such sympathy as he had 
with religion belonged with the faith supported by the 
king of France. Meanwhile the Church of England, 
which was strongly in the ascendancy in government, 
used the Nonconformists with great harshness, with 
the result that a common cause was made between 
politics and religion, and Parliament began slowly to 


INTRODUCTORY SKETCH, 


viii 

array itself against the king, Charles was secretly a 
pensioner of Louis XIV., the king of France, who dic- 
tated his policy, but so dishonorable a relation, even 
when not clearly known, could not fail to affect public 
feeling, and though the English and Dutch had been 
at war in consequence of the intrigues of Louis, the 
patriots who were coming into control of England 
now brought about what is known as the Triple Alli- 
ance, by which the three Protestant powers, England, 
Holland, and Sweden, were banded together to check 
the movements of Louis. 

Charles affected to be at the head of this popular 
English measure. In reality, he was now enter- 
ing upon a farther course of duplicity designed to 
strengthen his personal power and to bring in, there 
can be little doubt, the supremacy of the Koman 
Catholic Church. He looked to Louis for aid, and 
entered into a secret treaty with him by which Eng- 
land was to join France in an attack on Holland. It 
is difficult for us to understand, and the fact can be 
explained only by a careful statement of the political 
complications, how the king plunged England again 
into war with Holland. The main thing to be borne 
in mind is the steadily growing alarm in England 
against the possibility of a substitution of the Roman 
Catholic faith for Protestantism, an alarm which be- 
came little short of a panic when a pretended Popish 
plot was divulged in 1678. In a series of measures 
an unsuccessful attempt was made to provide for a 
Protestant succession by excluding James the brother 
of Charles II. from a right to the throne, and the 
Duke of Monmouth, a son of Charles II., appearing 
to side with the Nonconformists became the hero of 
the hour. The Whigs, as the opponents of the Tories 


INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. 


IX 


or court party were called, became at last so frenzied 
that they were involved in a plot to kill King Charles, 
and the discovery and punishment of the plot in- 
creased for a time the absolutism of Charles. 

Suddenly in 1685, Charles died, and was followed 
by James II., who, once firmly seated, devoted himself 
quite as strenuously as his brother to accomplishing the 
same ends. As a consequence Monmouth attempted 
to concentrate about himself the opposition, and raised 
an army which was defeated at Sedgemoor, and Mon- 
mouth himself was executed. But the king followed 
his victory with a series of merciless persecutions, 
and as if to confirm the saying, ‘‘ whom the Gods de- 
stroy they first make mad,” he alienated his supporters 
in the Church of England, heaped favors upon the 
Eoman Catholics, and though he endeavored by a 
policy of toleration to bring the Nonconformists to 
his side, his designs were too apparent to blind the 
more intelligent among them. At last his attacks on 
the liberty of England aroused such determined an- 
tagonism that the Whigs deliberately invited William, 
Prince of Orange, to come over from Holland and 
wrest the throne from their own king, and in 1689 a 
revolution was accomplished by which William and 
Mary were king and queen of England. 

Defoe was no mere pamphleteer in these stirring 
times. He was out with Monmouth, but though three 
of his old school-fellows were captured and put to 
death, Defoe escaped. His business took him on 
journeys to Spain and Portugal, and he had clearly a 
strong turn for adventure. But after all, his interest 
in affairs was political and religious rather than per- 
sonal. In those days the newspapers were what their 
name implied, purveyors of news : they did not offer 


X 


INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. 


opinions. To discuss the meaning of the news was 
the business of writers who were on one side or the 
other in public affairs, often men in the employ of 
the crown or one of the great noblemen who might 
be in opposition, and the vehicle of their writing was 
the pamphlet. An official censorship of the press ex- 
isted, and the writer of a specially severe attack on 
the government was in great danger of being arrested 
and made to play the penalty of a fine or imprison- 
ment. 

Defoe welcomed the coming of William with enthu- 
siasm, and during that king’s reign, from 1689 to 1702, 
he was an ardent supporter of the government. The 
ten years which closed with the king’s ^ death were 
years of prosperity with Defoe. In 1692 he met with 
business reverses, and for a time his personal affairs 
were in confusion : but he busied himself with public 
interests, and was rewarded by an office which appears 
to have tided him over financial straits. At any rate 
he again engaged in business, this time in the manu- 
facture of bricks and tiles, and became so j3rosperous 
that he shortly wiped out the debts incurred in his 
former venture. From all appearances Defoe, if he 
had turned all his energies into business, might have 
been a very successful man ; but from the first he was 
quite as much concerned with politics and the manage- 
ment of public affairs as with his own private fortune. 
He signalized himself in 1697 by issuing a pamphlet 
in defence of the king’s policy of maintaining a stand- 
ing army, in which he showed a trenchant use of 
the English language and a very strong faculty for 
argument. In this pamphlet, as in his later writings, 
he wrote so that everybody could understand what he 
said, — no mean accomplishment in an age when a 


INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. 


XI 


rotund, sonorous use of English was admired by 
scholars. This pamphlet was followed by another of 
a very varied character, since it was occupied with all 
sorts- of projects for increasing the revenue of the 
government and carrying forward the material and 
social prosperity of the kingdom. What strikes one 
in this work is the marvellous ingenuity of the writer. 
His restless mind seized hold of all manner of schemes 
then in the air and his ready wit played with them, 
shaping them into practical form and marshalling 
these varied forces into order. 

Toward the close of William’s reign England was 
thrown into great perplexity by the change in Conti- 
nental affairs which made Spain and Italy virtually 
a part of the French kingdom and jeopardized the 
safety of Holland. Defoe wrote ardently in support 
of William’s policy, which was to strengthen the bonds 
between England and Holland, but there was a very 
strong opposition to the king, who became very un- 
popular. The hidden suspicion of him as after all a 
foreigner broke out into virulent abuse, and in de- 
fence of the king Defoe wrote a piece of satire, called 
The True-Born Englishman., which was so full of 
clever hits that even the enemies of the king stopped 
to laugh over it. The purport of the poem was a re- 
tort that the English people were the most mongrel 
race on the face of the earth, and it was preposterous 
in them to mock at William as a foreigner. These 
valiant services rendered the king were rewarded by 
a personal attachment of William to Defoe, and had 
the king’s reign been longer, Defoe’s life might have 
had a different course. 

With the coming of Anne to the throne Defoe’s 
troubles began, and they took their rise in the publi- 


xii INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. 

cation by bim of a book which gave equal offence to 
dissenters and high churchmen, and for which he 
was set in the pillory and confined for over a year 
in Newgate prison. Two or three important conse- 
quences flowed from this. He made the acquaintance 
within the prison walls of a great variety of adven- 
turers and rogues as well as unfortunate men, and ac- 
cumulated material for some of his notable narratives ; 
his business went to pieces for lack of his superinten- 
dence, and he came out of prison by favor of a new 
ministry and devoted himself thereafter to writing, 
largely in the pay of the administration. For fifteen 
years, that is, during all the reign of Queen Anne and 
the early years of George I., he was a political writer, 
serving first one master and then another. Especially 
notable was a publication which he entered upon 
while still in Newgate and which he carried on for 
about ten years, a journal whose short name was The 
Review^ in which he adopted the newspaper form but 
preserved the pamphlet spirit, and filled it with vigor- 
ous writings on affairs especially in connection with 
the war which was now waging between England and 
France. During this time he was incessantly issuing 
pamphlets as well, and when Queen Anne died and 
the succession to the throne brought in fresh compli- 
cations in public life, Defoe’s energies became intense. 
His writings, moreover, were not confined to topics of 
a distinctly political or commercial nature. He was 
a versatile journalist, who could turn his hand to any- 
thing from society news to grave discussion, and so 
inventive withal that when there was no news stirring 
he would manufacture a sensation, like an account of 
an extraordinary blowing up of an island in the West 
Indies. If anybody of consequence died Defoe was 


INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. xiii 

ready with a long biography of him, and he seized 
upon every incident that came in his way as an oppor- 
tunity for weaving some elaborate story about it. In 
a word, he lived during this period in a society which 
was full of intrigue, of plot and counterplot, and with 
his brilliant, restless mind, and his one. occupation as 
a writer, he was entangled in a mesh of truth and 
falsehood which makes it extremely difficult to disen- 
tangle the real man from the dexterous plier of the 
trade of writing. 

Nevertheless, if one holds to two or three important 
clues, he may come better to understand the author 
of Robinson Crusoe. Defoe was first and last a 
sturdy patriot. From the time when he was out with 
Monmouth to the end of his days he was ready to die 
for his country, and to him England was a Protestant 
land, and a home of freedom. Then he was a parti- 
san in religion. He believed there were two parties, 
headed the one by God, the other by the Devil, and 
he kept up through life a sort of dramatic representa- 
tion in his mind, and was prepared at any time to out- 
wit the Devil if he could. He was, moreover, in spite 
of knocking about among men and being in the thick 
of things, an essentially lonely man, lonely in his 
mind, and if certain vague stories may be taken with 
literal truth, lonely in his own household. Above all 
he was a man gifted with a powerful imagination 
which laid hold not of remote but of near objects. 
It was a vivid imagination. He saw men and things 
with extraordinary clearness, and he was tremen- 
dously interested in life. 

When we take all these things into account we can 
better understand the part which his immortal book 
bore in his life. It came, it will be remembered, late 


XIV 


INTRODUCTORY SKETCH, 


in his career, when he had passed through the storm- 
iest period of his political activity, and was plunged 
deep in all manner of journalistic pursuits. The more 
intensely occupied a lonely man may be, the more 
surely is there a quiet place in his mind to which he 
retreats. It needs only for an occasion to arise when 
the real man will assert himself almost without know- 
ing it, and he will unconsciously lay bare the very 
heart of his life. 

Such an occasion came now to Defoe. Just as he 
had taken all manner of incidents which came in his 
way and played with them for the entertainment of 
his readers, so now he happened upon a strange ad- 
venture which was everybody’s possession, but which 
he, by the illumination of his genius, was to turn into 
a great piece of art, to be spoken of in somewhat the 
same terms as we use when we speak of the Odyssey. 
There was a certain Alexander Selkirk or Selcraig, 
a sailing master, who in 1704, having quarrelled with 
the captain of his vessel, went ashore on the island of 
Juan Fernandez off the Pacific coast of South Amer- 
ica, and remained there four years and four months, 
when he was taken off by an English vessel and 
brought back to his country. The narrative of his 
adventures was given more than once, one writer be- 
ing Eichard Steele, and the facts of his life on the 
island are thus condensed by Mr. Aitken : “ Selkirk 
was provided with a sea-chest, clothes, and bedding, 
a fire-lock, some gunpowder and bullets, a hatchet, 
knife, and kettle, a Bible and other books, and a few 
pounds of tobacco. On the island there were only 
goats, cats, and rats ; but turtles abounded. He 
made use also of the cabbage and pimento trees. 
For some time he was melancholy from the want of 


INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. 


XV 


society ; but after eighteen months he became recon- 
ciled to his lot, and made his hut a ‘ delicious bower.’ 
Rogers says there were two huts, one for cooking and 
the other for living purposes. To provide against 
want, he kept kids which he had lamed when young 
to prevent them escaping, and his cats relieved him 
of a pest of rats. He could overtake goats going at 
full speed, but in one expedition he fell down a preci- 
pice. When his clothes were worn out he made gar- 
ments of goats’ skins. Spaniards landed twice and 
shot at Selkirk, but he escaped. Cooke adds that the 
want of bread was met not only by the cabbage-tree, 
but by the seeds of turnips left by the Spaniards. 
Selkirk’s apartment was so concealed that it could 
not easily be discovered.” 

Here was the germ of Robinson Crusoe., and De- 
foe, carrying it possibly in his mind during the half- 
dozen years which elapsed between the first narrative 
of Selkirk’s adventure and the writing of the great 
book which bore somewhat the same relation to it as 
Shakespeare’s plays bore to the rude stories that sug- 
gested them, made out of the materials thus offered 
a crystal globe through which we may see his mind. 
Some writers have tried to trace a close parallel be- 
tween Defoe’s own life and Robinson Crusoe’s, and 
some fanciful analogies have been discovered. Mr. 
Wright, one of Defoe’s biographers, argues at length 
upon the parallel. “ His theory,” says Mr. Aitken, 
“ is based upon the fact that Defoe was born in 1659, 
twenty-seven years after the date assigned for Cru- 
soe’s birth ; and he maintains that if twenty-seven 
years is added to the date of any event in Crusoe’s 
life, we shall have the date of the corresponding in- 
cident in Defoe’s own experiences. Thus the illness 


xvi INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. 

of Defoe at the end of 1714 is supposed to correspond 
to Crusoe’s departure from his island in 1687, after 
a residence of over twenty-eight years. But there is 
the difficulty that in the original editions of Rohinson 
Crusoe (as well as in most, if not all, later editions) 
the date of Crusoe’s departure is given as December, 
1686, instead of 1687. Mr. Wright suggests that 
this is a misprint. It is certainly a mistake, since it 
does not agree with the statement respecting the 
length of Crusoe’s residence on the island ; but the 
mistake must be the author’s, not the printer’s, be- 
cause in the n^xt paragraph we are told that Crusoe 
reached England in June, 1687, not 1688. Now it 
is hardly probable that Defoe would have made this 
miscalculation if the date was an essential point in 
the allegory. Of other details in Defoe’s life, it is 
suggested that his departure from the academy at 
Newington corresponds with Crusoe’s running away 
to sea, when he was nearly nineteen ; that Crusoe’s 
early period on the island stands for the years Defoe 
lived at Tooting ; that a visit to the other side of the 
island indicates a journey to Scotland ; that the arri- 
val of the savages represents the troubles in which 
Defoe was involved after the trial of Sacheverell ; and 
that Friday was a collaborator who assisted Defoe in 
his work.” 

It is better to take Defoe’s own words, when in the 
preface to a volume which followed as a sort of sup- 
plement he wrote : In a word, the Adventures of 
Robinson Crusoe are one whole scheme of a real life ^ 
of eight and twenty years, spent in the most wander- 
ing, desolate, and affiicting circumstances that ever 
man went through.” That is to say, Defoe wrought 
his mental and spiritual experience into a narrative 


INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. xvii 

which was suggested by an actual occurrence ; he put 
himself into the work, but he did it in the same way 
that Shakespeare might have translated his own mind 
into Hamlet. 

How fascinating the imagination must have been to 
him ! In the midst of the turmoil of his life he leaps 
in thought into a remote, uninhabited island. What 
a relief it would be to live like Selkirk, with no one 
to speak to, absolutely alone. This is all he needs to 
set his fertile mind at work, and as he had been a 
voracious reader of travels and had talked much with 
sailors, there would be little difficulty in working 
out the problem of voyage and shipwreck. And now 
appears the art in the work. One of the great laws 
of art is restraint, the governing of the imagination 
by reason. Let any one read The Sioiss Family Rob- 
inson., one of the many copies of Robinson Crusoe., 
and he will see how a feeble imagination runs loose. 
There is much that is entertaining in this book and 
some quaintness in the scenes, but the mind is sur- 
feited with the success which attends the family. In 
Robinson Crusoe., on the contrary, the reader follows 
the solitary man step by step, and sees how admirably 
his life is imagined within the laws of probability, 
how he blunders and fails as well as succeeds. 

The truth is, Defoe was filled with the grand con- 
ception of a man stripped almost bare and set to rein- 
stating himself. He put him on an island where he 
could begin all over again, and he gave him for his 
staying power a belief in God. But even this belief 
was not absolute, for Robinson had also a very great 
respect for the adversary, the Devil, and some of the 
most interesting speculations in the book were reflec- 
tions of the vivid dramatization of the world above 


xviii INTRODUCTORY SKETCH, 

us in which Defoe all his life indulged. Defoe be- 
came absorbed in the imagination of this solitary man, 
and I think he forgot the mere circumstances of his 
own life as he built up piece by piece this creation 
of his imagination ; but he could not suppress his own 
profounder thought, and thus the secret of his own 
lonely experience passed over into this man whom he 
made. 

I have tried thus to hint at the origin of Robinson 
Crusoe as a work of art. It was because Defoe for- 
got himself in writing it, and by the limitations which 
he set, compressed his vigorous imagination into one 
mould ; it was because, also, the spirit of the man after 
forty years of buffeting with the world passed inevi- 
tably into a work of pure imagination. 

If anything more were needed to show that Rob- 
inson Crusoe owed its worth as a work of art to 
Defoe’s forgetfulness of himself and his unconscious 
betrayal of . his secret spirit, it would be the continua- 
tions which he wrote when the book had escaped him, 
and the world began to applaud. The Second Part 
begins with somewhat of the same splendid power 
shown in the First, as if the glow of his invention 
were still upon him, and then it grows more and more 
commonplace and loose, drifting off into a series of 
desultory adventures and experiments in government. 
The book was a supreme act, and though its success 
seemed to have turned Defoe’s mind into new chan- 
nels, so that during the remainder of his life he wrote 
successful stories and showed a genuine power in 
fiction, Robinson Crusoe still remains unapproached 
by its author. 

Defoe indeed again became prosperous through his 
literary activity. A family grew up about him, and 


INTRODUCTORY SKETCH, 


XIX 


yet, as if his fate was to be pursued by misfortune 
when he was most in view of success, he was again 
overtaken by some mysterious disaster, and went into 
hiding. It is even surmised that he was attacked by 
some form of insanity. We only know certainly that 
he was a homeless wanderer and fugitive for the last 
two years of his life, and died of a lethargy in a lodg- 
ing-house, April 26, 1731. 

Note. The most convenient sketch of Defoe’s life 
is that contained in the volume De/oe, by William 
Minto, in English Men of Letters. The text followed 
here is that used by Mr. Aitken in the recent reissue 
of Defoe’s Itomances and Narratives^ issued by J. 
M. Dent & Co., London ; compared also with a scru- 
pulous reprint made in 1868 and edited by Henry 
Kingsley, the novelist. The division into chapters 
does not exist in the original edition. It has been 
made here for the convenience of the reader. The 
exact title-page of the book as it appeared when first 
published April 23, 1719 was as follows : — 

“ The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of 
Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner ; who lived eight 
and twenty years all alone, on an uninhabited Island 
on the coast of America, near the mouth of the great 
river of Oroonoque ; having been cast on shore by 
shipwreck, wherein all the men perished but himself. 
With an Account how he was at last strangely deliv- 
ered by Pirates. Written by Himself.” 


AUTHOR’S PREFACE. 


If ever the story of any private man’s adventures 
in the world were worth making public, and were ac- 
ceptable when published, the Editor of this account 
thinks this will be so. 

The wonders of this man’s life exceed all that (he 
thinks) is to be found extant; the life of one man 
being scarce capable of a greater variety. 

The story is told with modesty, with seriousness, 
and with a religious application of events to the uses 
to which wise men always apply them, viz., to the in- 
struction of others by this example, and to justify and 
honor the wisdom of Providence in all the variety of 
our circumstances, let them happen how they will. 

The Editor believes the thing to be a just history of 
fact ; neither is there any appearance of fiction in it ; 
and, however, thinks, because all such things are de- 
spatched, that the improvement of it, as well to the 
diversion as to the instruction of the reader, will be 
the same. And as such, he thinks, without farther 
compliment to the world, he does them a great service 
in the publication. 





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Robinson Crusoe says his island lay between Trinidad and the mouth of the Orinoco 
river. See page 274. 



THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES 

OF 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


CHAPTER I. 

FIRST TRIAL OF THE SEA. 

I WAS born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of 
a good family, though not of that country, my father 
being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. 
He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off 
his trade, lived afterward at York, from whence he 
had married my mother, whose relations were named 
Robinson, a very good family in that country, and 
from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer ; but 
by the usual corruption of words in England we are 
now called, nay, we call ourselves, and write our name, 
Crusoe, and so my companions always called me. 

I had two elder brothers, one of which was lieu- 
tenant-colonel to an English regiment of foot in 
Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous Colonel 
Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk 
against the Spaniards ; what became of my second 
brother I never knew, any more than my father and 
mother did know what was become of me. 

Being the third son of the family, and not bred to 


2 ROBINSON CRUSOE. 

anj". trade, my head began to be filled very early with 
rambling' feb^ligbts. Mj father, who was very ancient, 
had given me a competent share of learning, as far as 
house education and a country free school generally 
goes, and designed me for the law ; but I would be 
satisfied with nothing but going to sea ; and my in- 
clination to this led me so strongly against the will, 
nay, the commands, of my father, and against all the 
entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other 
friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in that 
propension of nature tending directly to the life of 
misery which was to befall me. 

My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious 
and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my 
design. He called me one morning into his chamber, 
where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated 
very warmly with me upon this subject. He asked me 
what reasons more than a mere wandering Inclination 
I had for leaving my father’s house and my native 
country, where I might be well introduced, and had a 
prospect of raising my fortunes by application and in- 
dustry, with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me 
it was for men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or 
of aspiring superior fortunes on the other, who went 
abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and 
make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature 
out of the common road ; that these things were aH 
either too far above me, or too far below me ; that 
mine was the middle state, or what might be called the 
upper station of low life, which he had found by long 
experience was the best state in the world, the most 
suited to human happiness, not exposed to the mis- 
eries and hardships, the labor and sufferings, of the 
mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with 


FIRST TRIAL OF THE SEA. 


3 


tlie pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper 
part of mankind. He told me I might judge of the 
happiness of this state by this one thing, viz., that this 
was the state of life which all other people envied 
that kings have frequently lamented the miserable 
consequences of being born to great things, and wished 
they had been placed in the middle of the two ex- 
tremes, between the mean and the great ; that the 
wise man gave his testimony to this as the just stand- 
ard of true felicity, when he prayed to have neither 
poverty nor riches. 

He bid me observe it, and I should always find, that 
the calamities of life were shared among the upper 
and lower part of mankind ; but that the middle station 
had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so 
many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of man- 
kind. Nay, they were not subjected to so many 
distempers and uneasinesses either of body or mind 
as those were who, by vicious living, luxury, and ex- 
travagancies on one hand, or by hard labor, want of 
necessaries, and mean or insufficient diet on the other 
hand, bring distempers upon themselves by the natural 
consequences of their way of living ; that the middle 
station of life was calculated for all kind of virtues 
and all kind of enjoyments ; that peace and plenty 
were the handmaids of a middle fortune ; that tem- 
perance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all 
agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were 
blessings attending the middle station of life ; that 
this way men went silently and smoothly through the 
world, and comfortably out of it, not embarrassed with 
the labors of the hands or of the head, not sold to the 
life of slavery for daily bread, or harassed with per- 
plexed circumstances which rob the soul of peace, and 


4 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


the body of rest; not enraged with the passion of 
envy, or secret burning lust of ambition for great 
things ; but in easy circumstances sliding gently 
through the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets of 
living, without the bitter, feeling that they are happy, 
and learning by every day’s experience to know it 
more sensibly. 

After this, he pressed me earnestly, and in the most 
affectionate manner, not to play the young man, not to 
precipitate myself into miseries which Nature and the 
station of life I was born in seemed to have provided 
against ; that I was under no necessity of seeking my 
bread ; that he would do well for me, and endeavor to 
enter me fairly into the station of life which he had 
been just recommending to me ; and that if I was not 
very easy and happy in the world it must be my mere 
fate or fault that must hinder it, and that he should 
have nothing to answer for, having thus discharged 
his duty in warning me against measures which he 
knew would be to my hurt; in a word, that as he 
would do very kind things for me if I would stay and 
settle at home as he directed, so he would not have so 
much hand in my misfortunes as to give me any en- 
couragement to go away. And to close all, he told 
me I had my elder brother for an example, to whom 
he had used the same earnest persuasions to keep him 
from going into the Low Country wars, but could not 
prevail, his young desires prompting him to run into 
the army, where he was killed ; and though he said 
he would not cease to pray for me, yet he would ven- 
ture to say to me, that if I did take this foolish step, 
God would not bless me, and I would have leisure 
hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel 
when there might be none to assist in my recovery. 


FIRST TRIAL OF THE SEA. 


5 


I observed in this last part of his discourse, which 
was truly prophetic, though I suppose my father did 
not know it to be so himself — I say, I observed th^ 
tears run down his face very plentifully, and espe- 
cially when he spoke of my brother who was killed ; 
and that when he spoke of my having leisure to repent, 
and none to assist me, he was so moved that he broke 
off the discourse, and told me his heart was so full he 
could say no more to me. 

I was sincerely affected with this discourse, as in- 
deed who could be otherwise ? and I resolved not to 
think of going abroad any more, but to settle at home 
according to my father’s desire. But alas ! a few days 
wore it all off ; and, in short, to prevent any of my 
father’s farther importunities, in a few weeks after I 
resolved to run quite away from him. However, I 
did not act so hastily neither as my first heat of reso- 
lution prompted, but I took my mother, at a time 
when I thought her a little pleasanter than ordinary, 
and told her, that my thoughts were so entirely bent 
upon seeing the world that I should never settle to 
anything with resolution enough to go through with 
it, and my father had better give me his consent than 
force me to go without it ; that I was now eighteen 
years old, which was too late to go apprentice to a 
trade, or clerk to an attorney ; that I was sure if I 
did, I should never serve out my time, and I should 
certainly run away from my master before my time 
was out, and go to sea ; and if she would speak to my 
father to let me go but one voyage abroad, if I came 
home again and did not like it, I would go no more, 
and I would promise by a double diligence to recover 
that time I had lost. 

This put my mother into a great passion. She told 


6 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


me she knew it would be to no purpose to speak to 
my father upon any such subject ; that he knew too 
well what was my interest to give his consent to any- 
thing so much for my hurt, and that she wondered 
how I could think of any such thing after such a dis- 
course as I had had with my father, and such kind 
and tender expressions as she knew my father had 
used to me ; and that, in short, if I would ruin myself 
there was no help for me; but I might depend I 
should never have their consent to it; that for her 
part, she would not have so much hand in my destruc- 
tion, and I should never have it to say that my mother 
was willing when my father was not. 

Though my mother refused to move it to my father, 
yet, as I have heard afterwards, she reported all the 
discourse to him, and that my father, after showing a 
great concern at it, said to her with a sigh, “That boy 
might be happy if he would stay at home, but if he 
goes abroad he will be the miserablest wretch that 
was ever born : I can give no consent to it.” 

It was not till almost a year after this that I broke 
loose, though in the meantime I continued obstinately 
deaf to all proposals of settling to business, and fre- 
quently expostulating with my father and mother 
about their being so positively determined against 
what they knew my inclinations prompted me to. 
But being one day at Hull, where I went casually, 
and without any purpose of making an elopement 
that time ; but I say, being there, and one of my com- 
panions being going by sea to London, in his father’s 
ship, and prompting me to go with them, with the 
common allurement of seafaring men, viz., that it 
should cost me nothing for my passage, I consulted 
neither father nor mother any more, nor so much as 


FIRST TRIAL OF THE SEA. 


7 


sent them word of it ; but leaving them to hear of it 
as they might, without asking God’s blessing, or my 
father’s, without any consideration of circumstances 
or consequences, and in an ill hour, God knows, on 
the first of September, 1651, I went on board a ship 
bound for London. Never any young adventurer’s 
misfortunes, I believe, began sooner, or continued 
longer than mine. The ship was no sooner gotten 
out of the Humber, but the wind began to blow, and 
the waves to rise in a most frightful manner ; and as 
I had never been at sea before, I was most inexpress- 
ibly sick in body, and terrified in my mind. I began 
now seriously to reflect upon what I had done, and 
how justly I was overtaken by the judgment of Heaven 
for my wicked leaving my father’s house, and aban- 
doning my duty ; all the good counsel of my parents, 
my father’s tears and my mother’s entreaties, came 
now fresh into my mind, and my conscience, which 
was not yet come to the pitch of hardness which it has 
been since, reproached me with the contempt of ad- 
vice, and the breach of my duty to God and my father. 

All this while the storm increased, and the sea, 
which I had never been upon before, went very high, 
though nothing like what I have seen many times 
since ; no, nor like what I saw a few days after. But 
it was enough to affect me then, who was but a young 
sailor, and had never known anything of the matter. 
I expected every wave would have swallowed ns up, 
and that every time the ship fell down, as I thought, 
in the trough or hollow of the sea, we should never 
rise more ; and in this agony of mind I made many 
vows and resolutions, that if it would please God here 
to spare my life this one voyage, if ever I got once 
my foot upon dry land again I would go directly 


8 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


home to my father, and never set it into a ship again 
while I lived ; that I would take his advice, and never 
run myself into such miseries as these any more. 
Now I saw plainly the goodness of his observations 
about the middle station of life, how easy, how com- 
fortably he had lived all his days, and never had been 
exposed to tempests at sea, or troubles on shore ; and 
I resolved that I would, like a true repenting prodi- 
gal, go home to my father. 

These wise and sober thoughts continued all the 
while the storm continued, and indeed some time 
after ; but the next day the wind was abated and the 
sea calmer, and I began to be a little inured to it. 
However, I was very grave for all that day, being 
also a little seasick still ; but towards night the weather 
cleared up, the wind was quite over, and a charming 
fine evening followed ; the sun went down perfectly 
clear, and rose so the next morning ; and having little 
or no wind, and a smooth sea, the sun shining upon it, 
the sight was, as I thought, the most delightful that 
ever I saw. 

I had slept well in the night, and was now no more 
seasick but very cheerful, looking with wonder upon 
the sea that was so rough and terrible the day before, 
and could be so calm and so pleasant in so little time 
after. And now lest my good resolutions should con- 
tinue, my companion, who had indeed enticed me 
away, comes to me: ‘‘Well, Bob,” says he, clapping 
me on the shoulder, “ how do you do after it ? I war- 
rant you were frighted, wa’n’t you, last night, when it 
blew but a capful of wind ? ” “A capful, d’ you call 
it?” said I; “ ’t was a terrible storm.” “A storm, 
you fool you,” replies he ; “ do you call that a storm? 
Why, it was nothing at all ; give us but a good ship 


FIRST TRIAL OF THE SEA. 


9 


and sea-room, and we think nothing of such a squall 
of wind as that ; but you ’re but a fresh-water sailor, 
Bob. Come, let us make a bowl of punch, and we ’ll 
forget all that ; d’ ye see what charming weather ’t is 
now? ” To make short this sad part of my story, we 
went the old way of all sailors ; the punch was made, 
and I was made drunk with it, and in that one night’s 
wickedness I drowned all my repentance, all my re- 
flections upon my past conduct, and all my resolutions 
for my future. In a word, as the sea was returned to 
its smoothness of surface and settled calmness by the 
abatement of that storm, so the hurry of my thoughts 
being over, my fears and apprehensions of being swal- 
lowed up by the sea being forgotten, and the current 
of my former desires returned, I entirely forgot the 
vows and promises that I made in my distress. I 
found indeed some intervals of reflection, and the se- 
rious thoughts did, as it were, endeavor to return 
again sometimes ; but I shook them off, and roused 
myself from them as it were from a distemper, and 
applying myself to drink and company, soon mastered 
the return of those fits, for so I called them, and I 
had in five or six days got as complete a victory over 
conscience as any young fellow that resolved not to be 
troubled with it could desire. But I was to have an- 
other trial for it still; and Providence, as in such 
cases generally it does, resolved to leave me entirely 
without excuse. For if I would not take this for a 
deliverance, the next was to be such a one as the 
worst and most hardened wretch among us would con- 
fess both the danger and the mercy. 

The sixth day of our being at sea we came into 
Yarmouth Roads ; the wind having been contrary and 
the weather calm, we had made but little way since 


10 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


the storm. Here we were obliged to come to an an- 
chor, and here we lay, the wind continuing contrary, 
viz., at southwest, for seven or eight days, during 
which time a great many ships from Newcastle came 
into the same roads, as the common harbor where the 
ships might wait for a wind for the river. 

We had not, however, rid here so long, but should 
have tided it up the river, but that the wind blew too 
fresh ; and after we had lain four or five days, blew 
very hard. However, the roads being reckoned as 
good as a harbor, the anchorage good, and our 
ground-tackle very strong, our men were unconcerned, 
and not in the least apprehensive of danger, but spent 
the time in rest and mirth, after the manner of the 
sea; but the eighth day in the morning the. wind in- 
creased, and we had all hands at work to strike our 
topmasts, and make everything snug and close, that 
the ship might ride as easy as possible. By noon the 
sea went very high indeed, and our ship rid forecastle 
in, shipped several seas, and we thought once or twice 
our anchor had come home ; upon which our master 
ordered out the sheet-anchor, so that we rode with 
two -anchors ahead, and the cables veered out to the 
better end. 

By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed, and 
now I began to see terror and amazement in the faces 
even of the seamen themselves. The master, though 
vigilant to the business of preserving the ship, yet as 
he went in and out of his cabin by me, I could hear 
him softly to himself say several times, “ Lord, be 
merciful to us, we shall be all lost, we shall be all un- 
done ; ” and the like. During these first hurries I 
was stupid, lying still in my cabin, which was in the 
steerage, and cannot describe my temper ; I could ill 


FIRST TRIAL OF THE SEA, 


11 


reassume the first penitence, which I had so appar- 
ently trampled upon, and hardened myself against; 
I thought the bitterness of death had been past, and 
that this would be nothing too, like the first. But 
when the master himself came by me, as I said just 
now, and said we should be all lost, I was dreadfully 
frighted ; I got up out of my cabin, and looked out. 
But such a dismal sight I never saw ; the sea went 
mountains high, and broke upon us every three or 
four minutes ; when I could look about, I could see 
nothing but distress round us. Two ships that rid 
near us we found had cut their masts by the board, 
being deep loaden ; and our men cried out that a ship 
which rid about a mile ahead of us was foundered. 
Two more ships, being driven from their anchors, 
were run out of the roads to sea at all adventures, 
and that with not a mast standing. The light ships 
fared the best, as not so much laboring in the sea ; 
but two or three of them drove, and came close by us, 
running away with only their sprit-sail out before the 
wind. 

Towards evening the mate and boatswain begged 
the master of our ship to let them cut away the fore- 
mavSt, which he was very unwilling to. But the boat- 
swain protesting to him that if he did not the ship 
would founder, he consented ; and when they had cut 
away the foremast, the mainmast stood so loose, and 
shook the ship so much, they were obliged to cut her 
away also, and make a clear deck. 

Any one may judge what a condition I must be in 
at all this, who was but a young sailor, and who had 
been in such a fright before at but a little. But if I 
can express at this distance the thoughts I had about 
me at that time, I was in tenfold more horror of mind 


12 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


upon account of my former convictions, and the hav- 
ing returned from them to the resolutions I had wick- 
edly taken at first, than I was at death itself; and 
these, added to the terror of the storm, put me into 
such a condition that I can by no words describe it. 
But the worst was not come yet ; the storm continued 
with such fury that the seamen themselves acknow- 
ledged they had never known a worse. We had a 
good ship, but she was deep loaden, and wallowed in 
the sea, that the seamen every now and then cried 
out she would founder. It was my advantage in one 
respect, that I did not know what they meant by 
founder till I inquired. However, the storm was so 
violent that I saw what is not often seen, the master, 
the boatswain, and some others more sensible than 
the rest, at their prayers, and expecting every mo- 
ment when the ship would go to the bottom. In the 
middle of the night, and under all the rest of our dis- 
tresses, one of the men that had been down on pur- 
pose to see cried out we had sprung a leak ; another 
said there was four foot water in the hold. Then all 
hands were called to the pump. At that very word 
my heart, as I thought, died within me, and I fell 
backwards upon the side of my bed where I sat, into 
the cabin. However, the men roused me, and told 
me that I, that was able to do nothing before, was as 
well able to pump as another ; at which I stirred up 
and went to the pump and worked very heartily. 
While this was doing, the master seeing some light 
colliers who, not able to ride out the storm, were 
obliged to slip and run away to sea, and would come 
near us, ordered to fire a gun as a signal of distress. 
I, who knew nothing what that meant, was so sur- 
prised that I thought the ship had broke, or some 


FIRST TRIAL OF THE SEA, 


13 


dreadful thing had happened. In a word, I was so 
surprised that I fell down in a swoon. As this was a 
time when everybody had his own life to think of, 
nobody minded me, or what was become of me ; but 
another man stepped up to the pump, and thrusting 
me aside with his foot, let me lie, thinking I had been 
dead ; and it was a great while before I came to 
myself. 

We worked on, but the water increasing in the 
hold, it was apparent that the ship would founder, 
and though the storm began to abate a little, yet as it 
was not possible she could swim till we might run 
into a port, so the master continued firing guns for 
help; and a light ship, who had rid it out just ahead 
of us, ventured a boat out to help us. It was with 
the utmost hazard the boat came near us, but it was 
impossible for us to get on board, or for the boat to 
lie near the ship’s side, till at last the men rowing 
very heartily, and venturing their lives to save ours, 
our men cast them a rope over the stern with a buoy 
to it, and then veered it out a great length, which 
they after great labor and hazard took hold of, and 
we hauled them close under our stern, and got all 
into their boat. It was to no purpose for them or us 
after we were in the boat to think of reaching to their 
own ship, so all agreed to let her drive, and only to 
pull her in toward shore as much as we could, and 
our master promised them that if the boat was staved 
upon shore he would make it good to their master ; so 
partly rowing and partly driving, our boat went away 
to the norVard, sloping towards the shore almost as 
far as Winterton Ness.. 

We were not much more than a quarter of an hour 
out of our ship but we saw her sink, and then I under- 


14 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


stood for the first time what was meant by a ship 
foundering in the sea. I must acknowledge I had 
hardly eyes to look up when the seamen told me she 
was sinking ; for from that moment they rather put 
me into the boat than that I might be said to go in ; 
my heart was as it were dead within me, partly with 
fright, partly with horror of mind and the thoughts of 
what was yet before me. 

While we were in this condition, the men yet labor- 
ing at the oar to bring the boat near the shore, we 
could see, when, our boat mounting the waves, we 
were able to see the shore, a great many people run- 
ning along the shore to assist us when we should come 
near. But we made but slow way towards the shore, 
nor were we able to reach the shore, till being past 
the lighthouse at Winterton, the shore falls off to the 
westward towards Cromer, and so the land broke off a 
little the violence of the wind. Here we got in, and 
though not without much difficulty got all safe on 
shore, and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth, 
where, as unfortunate men, we were used with great 
humanity as well by the magistrates of the town, who 
assigned us good quarters, as by particular merchants 
and owners of ships, and had money given us sufficient 
to carry us either to London or back to Hull, as we 
thought fit. 

Had I now had the sense to have gone back to Hull, 
and have gone home, I had been happy, and my father, 
an emblem of our blessed Saviour’s parable, had even 
killed the fatted calf for me ; for hearing the ship I 
went away in was cast away in Yarmouth Road, it was 
a great while before he had any assurance that I was 
not drowned. 

But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy 


FIRST TRIAL OF THE SEA. 


15 


that nothing could resist ; and though I had several 
times loud calls from my reason and my more com- 
posed judgment to go home, yet I had no power to do 
it. I know not what to call this, nor will I urge that 
it is a secret overruling decree that hurries us on to be 
the instruments of our own destruction, even though it 
be before us, and that we rush upon it with our eyes 
open. Certainly nothing but some such decreed un- 
avoidable misery attending, and which it was imj)os- 
sible for me to escape, could have pushed me forward 
against the calm reasonings and persuasions of my 
most retired thoughts, and against two such visible 
instructions as I had met with in my first attempt. 

My comrade, who had helped to harden me before, 
and who was the master’s son, was now less forward 
than I. The first time he spoke to me after we were 
at Yarmouth, which was not till two or three days, for 
we were separated in the town to several quarters — I 
say, the first time he saw me, it appeared his tone was 
altered, and, looking very melancholy and shaking .his 
head, asked me how I did ; and telling his father who 
I was, and how I had come this voyage only for a 
trial in order to go farther abroad, his father turning 
to me with a very grave and concerned tone, “ Young 
man,” says he, “you ought never to go to sea any 
more ; you ought to take this for a plain and visible 
token that you are not to be a seafaring man.” “ Why, 
sir,” said I, “will you go to sea no more?” “ That 
is another case,” said he ; “ it is my calling, and there- 
fore my duty ; but as you made this voyage for a trial, 
you see what a taste Heaven has given you of what 
you are to expect if you persist ; perhaps this is all 
befallen us on your account, like Jonah in the ship of 
Tarshish. Pray,” continues he, “ what are you ? and 


16 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


on what account did you go to sea?” Upon that I 
told him some of my story, at the end of which he 
burst out with a strange kind of passion. “ What 
had I done,” says he, ‘‘ that such an unhappy wretch 
should come into my ship ? 1 would not set my foot 

in the same ship with thee again for a thousand 
pounds.” This indeed was, as I said, an excursion of 
his spirits, which were yet agitated by the sense of his 
loss, and was farther than he could have authority to 
go. However, he afterwards talked very gravely to 
me, exhorted me to go back to my father, and not 
tempt Providence to my ruin ; told me I might see a 
visible hand of Heaven against me. And, young 
man,” said he, “ depend upon it, if you do not go back, 
wherever you go you will meet with nothing but disas- 
ters and disappointments, till your father’s words are 
fulfilled upon you.” 

We parted soon after ; for I made him little answer, 
and I saw him no more ; which way he went, I know 
not. As for me, having some money in my pocket, I 
travelled to London by land ; and there, as well as on 
the road, had many struggles with myself what course 
of life I should take, and whether I should go home, 
or go to sea. 

As to going home, shame opposed the best motions 
that offered to my thoughts ; and it immediately 
occurred to me how I should be laughed at among the 
neighbors, and should be ashamed to see, not my 
father and mother only, but even everybody else; 
from whence I have since often observed how incon- 
gruous and irrational the common temper of mankind 
is, especially of youth, to that reason which ought to 
guide them in such cases, viz., that they are not 
ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent ; not 


FIRST TRIAL OF THE SEA. 


17 


a^amed of the action for which they ought justly to 
be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, 
which only can make them be esteemed wise men. 

In this state of life, however, I remained some time, 
uncertain what measures to take, and what course of 
life to lead. An irresistible reluctance continued to 
going home ; and as I stayed a while, the remembrance 
of the distress I had been in wore off; and as that 
abated, the little motion I had in my desires to a re- 
turn wore off with it, till at last I quite laid aside the 
thoughts of it, and looked out for a voyage. 


CHAPTER 11. 


A CAPTIVE AMONG THE MOORS. 

That evil influence which carried me first away 
from my father’s house, that hurried me into the wild 
and indigested notion of raising my fortune, and that 
impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me as to 
make me deaf to all good advice, and to the entreaties 
and even .command of my father — I say, the same 
influence, whatever it was, presented the most unfor- 
tunate of all enterprises to my view ; and I went on 
board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa, or, as our 
sailors vulgarly call it, a voyage to Guinea. 

It was my great misfortune that in all these adven- 
tures I did not ship myself as a sailor, whereby, 
though I might indeed have worked a little harder 
than ordinary, yet at the same time I had learned the 
duty and office of a foremast man, and in time might 
have qualified myself for a mate or lieutenant, if not 
for a master. But as it was always my fate to choose 
for the worse, so I did here ; for having money in my 
pocket, and good clothes upon my back, I would 
always go on board in the habit of a gentleman ; and 
so I neither had any business in the ship, nor learned 
to do any. 

It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good 
company in London, which does not always happen to 
such loose and misguided young fellows as I then was, 
the devil generally not omitting to lay some snare for 


A CAPTIVE AMONG THE MOORS. 


19 


them very early ; but it was not so with me. I first 
fell acquainted with the master of a ship who had been 
on the coast of Guinea, and who, having had very 
good success there, was resolved to go again ; and 
who, taking a fancy to my conversation, which was 
not at all disagreeable at that time, hearing me say I 
had a mind to see the world, told me if I would go the 
voyage with him I should be at no expense ; I should 
be his messmate and his companion ; and if I could 
carry anything with me, I should have all the advan- 
tage of it that the trade would admit, and perhaps I 
might meet with some encouragement. 

I embraced the offer; and, entering into a strict 
friendship with this captain, who was an honest and 
plain-dealing man, I went the voyage with him, and 
carried a small adventure with me, which, by the dis- 
interested honesty of my friend the captain, I increased 
very considerably, for I carried about £40 in such 
toys and trifles as the captain directed me to buy. This 
£40 I had mustered together by the assistance of some 
of my relations whom I corresponded with, and who, 
I believe, got my father, or at least my mother, to con- 
tribute so much as that to my first adventure. 

This was the only voyage which I may say was 
successful in all my adventures, and which I owe to 
the integrity and honesty of my friend the captain ; 
under whom also I got a competent knowledge of the 
mathematics and the rules of navigation, learned how 
to keep an account of the ship’s course, take an ob- 
servation, and, in short, to understand some things 
that were needful to be understood by a sailor. For, 
as he took delight to introduce me, I took delight to 
learn ; and, in a word, this voyage made me both a 
sailor and a merchant ; for I brought . home five 


20 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


pounds nine ounces of gold-dust for my adventure, 
which yielded me in London at my return almost <£300, 
and this filled me with those aspiring thoughts which 
have since so completed my ruin. 

Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too ; 
particularly, that I was continually sick, being thrown 
into a violent calenture by the excessive heat of the 
climate ; our principal trading being upon the coast, 
from the latitude of fifteen degrees north even to the 
line itself. 

I was now set up for a Guinea trader ; and my friend, 
to my great misfortune, dying soon after his arrival, I 
resolved to go the same voyage again, and I embarked 
in the same vessel v/ith one who was his mate in the 
former voyage, and had now got the command of the 
ship. This was the unhappiest voyage that ever man 
made ; for though I did not carry quite £100 of my 
new-gained wealth, so that I had £200 left, and which 
I lodged with my friend’s widow, who was very just 
to me, yet I fell into terrible misfortunes in this voy- 
age ; and the first was this, viz., our ship making her 
course toward the Canary Islands, or rather between 
those islands and the African shore, was surprised in 
the gray of the morning by a Turkish rover of Sallee, 
who gave chase to us with all the sail she could make. 
We crowded also as much canvas as our yards would 
spread, or our masts carry, to have got clear; but 
finding the pirate gained upon us, and would certainly 
come up with us in a few hours, we prepared to fight, 
our ship having twelve guns, and the rogue eighteen. 
About three in the afternoon he came up with us, and 
bringing to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, 
instead of athwart our stern, as he intended, we 
brought eight of our guns to bear on that side, and 


A CAPTIVE AMONG THE MOORS. 


21 


poured in a broadside upon him, which made him sheer 
off again, after returning our fire and pouring in also 
his small-shot from near two hundred men which he 
had on board. However, we had not a man touched, 
all our men keeping close. He prepared to attack us 
again, and we to defend ourselves ; but laying us on 
board the next time upon our other quarter, he entered 
sixty men upon our decks, who immediately fell to 
cutting and hacking the decks and rigging. We plied 
them with small-shot, half-pikes, powder-chests, and 
such like, and cleared our deck of them twice. How- 
ever, to cut short this melancholy part of our story, 
our ship being disabled, and three of our men killed 
and eight wounded, we were obliged to yield, and were 
carried all prisoners into Sallee, a port belonging to 
the Moors. 

The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at 
first I apprehended, nor was I carried up the country 
to the emperor’s court, as the rest of our men were, 
but was kept by the captain of the rover as his proper 
prize, and made his slave, being young and nimble, 
and fit for his business. At this surprising change 
of my circumstances from a merchant to a miserable 
slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed ; and now I 
looked back upon my father’s prophetic discourse to 
me, that I should be miserable, and have none to re- 
lieve me, which I thought was now so effectually 
brought to pass that it could not be worse ; that now 
the hand of Heaven had overtaken me, and I was un- 
done without redemption. But alas ! this was but a 
taste of the misery I was to go through, as will appear 
in the sequel of this story. 

As my new patron, or master, had taken me home 
to his house, so I was in hopes that he would take me 


22 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


with him when he went to sea again, believing that it 
would some time or other be his fate to be taken by 
a Spanish or Portugal man-of-war ; and that then I 
should be set at liberty. But this hope of mine was 
soon taken away ; for when he went to sea, he left me 
•on shore to look after his little garden, and do the 
common drudgery of slaves about his house ; and 
when he came home again from his cruise, he ordered 
me to lie in the cabin to look after the ship. 

Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what 
method I might take to effect it, but found no way 
that had the least probability in it. Nothing pre- 
sented to make the supposition of it rational ; for I 
had nobody to communicate it to that would embark 
with me, no fellow-slave, no Englishman, Irishman, 
or Scotsman there but myself ; so that for two years, 
though I often pleased myself with the imagination, 
yet I never had the least encouraging prospect of put- 
ting it in practice. 

After about two years an odd circumstance pre- 
sented itself, which put the old thought of making 
some attempt for my liberty again in my head. My 
patron lying at home longer than usual without fit- 
ting out his ship, which, as I heard, was for want of 
money, he used constantly, once or twice a week, some- 
times oftener, if the weather was fair, to take the 
ship’s pinnace, and go out into the road a-fishing; 
and as he always took me and a young Maresco with 
him to row the boat, we made him very merry, and I 
proved very dexterous in catching fish; insomuch, 
that sometimes he would send me with a Moor, one of 
his kinsmen, and the youth the Maresco, as they called 
him, to catch a dish of fish for him. 

It happened one time that, going a-Sshing in a 


A CAPTIVE AMONG THE MOORS. 


23 


stark calm morning, a fog rose so thick, that though 
we were not half a league from the shore we lost sight 
of it ; and rowing we knew not whither or which way, 
we labored all day, and all the next night, and when 
the morning came we found we had pulled off to sea 
instead of pulling in for the shore, and that we were 
at least two leagues from the shore. However, we 
got well in again, though with a great deal of labor, 
and some danger, for the wind began to blow pretty 
fresh in the morning ; but particularly we were all 
very hungry. 

But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved 
to take more care of himself for the future ; and hav- 
ing lying by him the long-boat of our English ship 
which he had taken, he resolved he would not go 
a-fishing any more without a compass and some pro- 
vision ; so he ordered the carpenter of his ship, who 
also was an English slave, to build a little stateroom, 
or cabin, in the middle of the long-boat, like that of a 
barge, with a place to stand behind it to steer and 
haul home the main-sheet, and room before for a hand 
or two to stand and work the sails. She sailed with 
what we call a shoulder-of-mutton sail ; and the boom 
jibbed over the top of the cabin, which lay very snug 
and low, and had in it room for him to lie, with a 
slave or two, and a table to eat on, with some small 
lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as he 
thought fit to drink ; particularly his bread, rice, and 
coffee. 

We went frequently out with this boat a-fishing, 
and as I was most dexterous to catch fish for him, he 
never went without me. It happened that he had ap- 
pointed to go out in this boat, either for pleasure or 
for fish, with two or three Moors of some distinction 


24 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


in that place, and for whom he had provided extraor- 
dinarily ; and had therefore sent on board the boat 
overnight a larger store of provisions than ordinary ; 
and had ordered me to get ready three fuzees with 
powder and shot, which were on board his ship, for 
that they designed some sport of fowling as well as 
fishing. 

I got all things ready as he had directed, and 
waited the next morning with the boat, washed clean, 
her ancient and pendants out, and everything to ac- 
commodate his guests ; when by and by my patron 
came on board alone, and told me his guests had put 
off going, upon some business that fell out, and 
ordered me with the man and boy, as usual, to go out 
with the boat and catch them some fish, for that his 
friends were to sup at his house ; and commanded 
that as soon as I had got some fish I should bring it 
home to his house ; all which I prepared to do. 

This moment my former notions of deliverance 
darted into my thoughts, for now I found I was like 
to have a little ship at my command ; and my master 
being gone, I prepared to furnish myself, not for a 
fishing business, but for a voyage ; though I knew 
not, neither did I so much as consider, whither I 
should steer ; for anywhere, to get out of that place, 
was my way. 


CHAPTER HI. 


ESCAPE FROM CAPTIVITY. 

My first contrivance was to make a pretenee to 
speak to this Moor, to get something for our subsis- 
tence on board ; for I told him we must not presume 
to eat of our patron’s bread. He said that was true ; 
so he brought a large basket of rusk or biscuit of 
their kind, and three jars with fresh water, into the 
boat. I knew where my patron’s case of bottles 
stood, which it was evident by the make were taken 
out of some English prize ; and I conveyed them into 
the boat while the Moor was on shore, as if they had 
been there before for our master. I conveyed also a 
great lump of beeswax into the boat, which weighed 
above half a hundred-weight, with a parcel of twine 
or thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all which 
were great use to us afterwards, especially the wax to 
make candles. Another trick I tried upon him, which 
he innocently came into also. His name was Ismael, 
who they call Muly, or Moely ; so I called to him, 
“ Moely,” said I, our patron’s guns are on board 
the boat ; can you not get a little powder and shot ? 
it may be we may kill some alcamies ” (a fowl like our 
curlews) “ for ourselves, for I know he keeps the gun- 
ner’s stores in the ship.” “ Yes,” says he, I ’ll 
bring some ; ” and accordingly he brought a great 
leather pouch which held about a pound and a half of 
powder, or rather more ; and another with shot, that 


26 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


had five or six pounds, with some bullets, and put all 
into the boat. At the same time I had found some 
powder of my master’s in the great cabin, with which 
I filled one of the large bottles in the case, which was 
almost empty, pouring what was in it into another ; 
and thus furnished with everything needful, we sailed 
out of the port to fish. The castle, which is at the 
entrance of the port, knew who we were, and took no 
notice of us ; and we were not above a mile out of the 
port before we hauled in our sail, and set us down to 
fish. The wind blew from the N. N. E., which was 
contrary to my desire ; for had it blown southerly I 
had been sure to have made the coast of Spain, and 
at least reached to the bay of Cadiz ; but my resolu- 
tions were, blow which way it would, I would be gone 
from the horrid place where I was, and leave the rest 
to Fate. 

After we had fished some time and catched nothing, 
for when I had fish on my hook I would not pull them 
up, that he might not see them, I said to the Moor, 
This will not do ; our master will not be thus 
served ; we must stand farther off.” He, thinking no 
harm, agreed, and being in the head of the boat set 
the sails ; and as I had the helm I run the boat out 
near a league farther, and then brought her to as if 
I would fish ; when giving the boy the helm, I stepped 
forward to where the Moor was, and making as if I 
stooped for something behind him, I took him by sur- 
prise with my arm under his twist, and tossed him 
clear overboard into the sea. He rose immediately, 
for he swam like a cork, and called to me, begged to 
be taken in, told me he would go all the world over 
with me. He swam so strong after the boat that he 
would have reached me very quickly, there being but 


ESCAPE FROM CAPTIVITY. 


27 


little wind ; upon which I stepped into the cabin, and 
fetching one of the fowling-pieces, I presented it at 
him, and told him I had done him no hurt, and if he 
would be quiet I would do him none. “ But,” said I, 
you swim well enough to reach to the shore, and the 
sea is calm ; make the best of your way . to shore, and 
I will do you no harm ; but if you come near the 
boat I ’ll shoot you through the head, for I am re- 
solved to have my liberty.” So he turned himself 
about, and swam for the shore, and I make no doubt 
but he reached it with ease, for he was an excellent 
swimmer. 

I could have been content to have taken this Moor 
with me, and have drowned the boy, but there was no 
venturing to trust him. When he was gone I turned 
to the boy, whom they called Xury, and said to him, 

‘‘ Xury, if you will be faithful to me I ’ll make you 
a great man ; but if you will not stroke your face to 
be true to me,” that is, swear by Mahomet and his^ 
father’s beard, I must throw you into the sea too.” 
The boy smiled in my face, and spoke so innocently 
that I could not mistrust him, and swore to be faith- 
ful to me, and go all over the world with me. 

While I was in view of the Moor that was swim- 
ming, I stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather 
stretching to windward, that they might think me 
gone towards the straits’ mouth (as indeed any one 
that had been in their wits must have been su]3posed 
to do) ; for who would have supposed we were sailed 
on to the southward to the truly barbarian coast, where 
whole nations of negroes were sure to surround us with 
their canoes, and destroy us; where we could ne’er 
once go on shore but we should be devoured by savage 
beasts, or more merciless savages of human kind ? 


28 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening I 
changed my course, and steered directly south and by 
east, bending my course a little toward the east, that 
I might keep in with the shore ; and having a fair, 
fresh gale of wind, and a smooth, quiet sea, I made 
such sail that I believe by the next day at three 
o’clock in the afternoon, when I first made the land, 
I could not be less than a hundred and fifty miles 
south of Sallee ; quite beyond the Emperor of Mo- 
rocco’s dominions, or indeed of any other king there- 
abouts, for we saw no people. 

Yet such was the fright I had taken at the Moors, 
and the dreadful apprehensions I had of falling into 
their hands, that I would not stop, or go on shore, or 
come to an anchor, the wind continuing fair, till I 
had sailed in that manner five days ; and then the 
wind shifting to the southward, I concluded also that 
if any of our vessels were in chase of me, they also 
;^uld now give over ; so I ventured to make to the 
coast, and came to an anchor in the mouth of a little 
river, I knew not what or where ; neither what lati- 
tude, what country, what nations, or what river. I 
neither saw, nor desired to see, any people ; the princi- 
pal thing I wanted was fresh water. We came into 
this creek in the evening, resolving to swim on shore 
as soon as it was dark, and discover the country ; but 
as soon as it was quite dark we heard such dreadful 
noises of the barking, roaring, and howling of wild 
creatures, of we knew not what kinds, that the poor 
boy was ready to die with fear, and begged of me not 
to go on shore till day. Well, Xury,” said I, “ then 
I won’t ; but it may be we may see men by day, who 
will be as bad to us as those lions.” “ Then we give 
them the shoot gun,” says Xury, laughing; “make 


ESCAPE FROM CAPTIVITY. 


29 


them run way.” Such English Xury spoke by con- 
versing among us slaves. However, I was glad to see 
the boy so cheerful, and I gave him a dram (out of 
our patron’s case of bottles) to cheer him up. After 
all, Xury’s advice was good, and I took it ; we 
dropped our little anchor and lay still all night. I say 
still, for we slept none ; for in two or three hours we 
saw vast great creatures (we knew not what to call 
them) of many sorts come down to the seashore and 
run into the water, wallowing and washing themselves 
for the pleasure of cooling themselves ; and they made 
such hideous bowlings and yellings that I never in- 
deed heard the like. 

Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I 
too ; but we were both more frighted when we heard 
one of these mighty creatures come swimming towards 
our boat ; we could not see him, but we might hear 
him by his blowing to be a monstrous huge and furi- 
ous beast. Xury said it was a lion, and it might be 
so for aught I know ; but poor Xury cried to me to 
weigh the anchor and row away. ‘‘No,” says I, 
“ Xury ; we can slip our cable with the buoy to it, 
and go off to sea; they cannot follow us far.” I had 
no sooner said so, but I perceived the creature (what- 
ever it was) within two oars’ length, which something 
surprised me ; however, I immediately stepped to the 
cabin door, and taking up my gun, fired at him, upon 
which he immediately turned about and swam towards 
the shore again. 

But it is impossible to describe the horrible noises, 
and hideous cries and bowlings, that were raised, as 
well upon the edge of the shore as higher within the 
country, upon the noise or report of the gun, a thing I 
have some reason to believe those creatures had never 


30 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


heard before. This convinced me that there was no 
going on shore for us in the night upon that coast ; 
and how to venture on shore in the day was another 
question too ; for to have fallen into the hands of any 
of the savages had been as bad as to have fallen into 
the hands of lions and tigers ; at least we were equally 
apprehensive of the danger of it. 

Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore 
somewhere or other for water, for we had not a pint 
left in the boat ; when or where to get to it was the 
point. Xury said if I would let him go on shore with 
one of the jars, he would find if there was any water 
and bring some to me. I asked him why he would 
go? why I should not go and he stay in the boat? 
The boy answered with so much affection that made 
me love him ever after. Says he, “ If wild mans 
come, they eat me, you go way.” Well, Xury,” 
said I, ‘‘ we will both go ; and if the wild mans come, 
we will kill them ; they shall eat neither of us.” So I 
gave Xury a piece of riisk bread to eat, and a dram 
out of our patron’s case of bottles which I mentioned 
before ; and we hauled in the boat as near the shore 
as we thought was proper, and so waded on shore, 
carrying nothing but our arms and two jars for 
water. 

I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing 
the coming of canoes with savages down the river ; 
but the boy seeing a low place about a mile up the 
country, rambled to it ; and by and by I saw him come 
running towards me. I thought he was pursued bvx 
some savage, or frighted with some wild beast, and I 
ran forward towards him to help him ; but when I 
came nearer to him, I saw something hanging over 
his shoulders, which was a creature that he had shot. 


ESCAPE FROM CAPTIVITY. 


31 


like a hare, but different in color, and longer legs. 
However, we were very glad of it, and it was very 
good meat ; but the great joy that poor Xiiry came 
with was to tell me he had found good water, and 
seen no wild mans. 

But we found afterwards that we need not take 
such pains for water, for a little higher up the creek 
where we were we found the water fresh when the tide 
was out, which flowed but a little way up ; so we filled 
our jars, and feasted on the hare we had killed, and 
prepared to go on our way, having seen no footsteps 
of any human creature in that part of the country. 

As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I 
knew very well that the islands of the Canaries, and 
the Cape de Verde Islands also, lay not far off from 
the coast. But as I had no instruments to take an 
observation to know what latitude we were in, and 
did not exactly know, or at least remember, what lati- 
tude they were in, I knew not where to look for them, 
or when to stand off to sea towards them ; otherwise I 
might now easily have found some of these islands. 
But my hope was, that if I stood along this coast till 
I came to that part where the English traded, I should 
find some of their vessels upon their usual design of 
trade, that would relieve and take us in. 

By the best of my calculation, that place where I 
now was must be that country which, lying between 
the Emperor of Morocco’s dominions and the negroes, 
lies waste and uninhabited, except by wild beasts ; the 
negroes having abandoned it and gone farther south 
for fear of the Moors, and the Moors not thinking it 
worth inhabiting, by reason of its barrenness ; and in- 
deed both forsaking it because of the prodigious num- 
bers of tigers, lions, leopards, and other furious crea- 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


tures which harbor there ; so that the Moors use it 
for their hunting only, where they go like an army, 
two or three thousand men at a time ; and indeed for 
near an hundred miles together upon this coast we saw 
nothing but a waste uninhabited country by day, and 
heard nothing but bowlings and roarings of wild beasts 
by night. 

Once or twice in the daytime I thought I saw the 
Pico of Teneriffe, being the high top of the Mountain 
Teneriffe in the Canaries, and had a great mind to 
venture out, in hopes of reaching thither ; but having 
tried twice, I was forced in again by contrary winds, 
the sea also going too high for my little vessel ; so I 
resolved to pursue my first design, and keep along the 
shore. 

Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water 
after we had left this place ; and once in particular, 
being early in the morning, we came to an anchor un- 
der a little point of land which was pretty high ; and 
the tide beginning to fiow, we lay still to go farther in. 
Xury, whose eyes were more about him than it seems 
mine were, calls softly to me, and tells me that we 
had best go farther off the shore. For,” says he, 

look ; yonder lies a dreadful monster on the side of 
that hillock fast asleep.” I looked where he pointed, 
and saw a dreadful monster indeed, for it was a terri- 
ble great lion that lay on the side of the shore, under 
the shade of a piece of the hill that hung as it were a 
little over him. Xury,” says I, “ you shall go on 
shore and kill him.” Xury looked frighted, and said, 
‘‘ Me kill ! He eat me at one mouth,” — one moutliful he 
meant. However, I said no more to the boy, but 
bade him lie still, and I took our biggest gun, which 
was almost musket-bore, and loaded it with a good 


ESCAPE FROM CAPTIVITY. 


83 


charge of powder, and with two slugs, and laid it down ; 
then I loaded another gun with two bullets ; and the 
third (for we had three pieces) I loaded with five 
smaller bullets. I took the best aim I could with the 
first piece to have shot him into the head, but he lay 
so, with his leg raised a little above his nose, that the 
slugs hit his leg about the knee, and broke the bone. 
He started up growling at first, but finding his leg 
broke, fell down again, and then got up upon three 
legs and gave the most hideous roar that ever I heard. 
I was a little surprised that I had not hit him on the 
head. However, I took up the second piece immedi- 
ately, and, though he began to move off, fired again, 
and shot him into the head, and had the pleasure to 
see him drop, and make but little noise, but lay strug- 
gling for life. Then Xury took heart, and would 
have me let him go on shore. “ Well, go,” said I; 
so the boy jumped into the water, and, taking a little 
gun in one hand, swam to shore with the other hand, 
and, coming close to the creature, put the muzzle of 
the piece to his ear, and shot him into the head again, 
which despatched him quite. 

This was game indeed to us, but this was no food ; 
and I was very sorry to lose three charges of powder 
and shot upon a creature that was good for nothing to 
us. However, Xury said he would have some of him ; 
so he comes on board, and asked me to give him the 
hatchet. ‘‘For what, Xury?” said I. ‘‘Me cut off 
his head,” said he. However, Xury could not cut off 
his head, but he cut off a foot, and brought it with 
him, and it was a monstrous great one. 

I bethought myself, however, that perhaps the skin 
of him might one way or other be of some value to 
us ; and I resolved to take off his skin if I could. So 


34 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


Xiiry and I went to work with him ; but Xury was 
much the better workman at it, for I knew very ill 
how to do it. Indeed, it took us up both the whole 
day, but at last we got off the hide of him, and 
spreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun effect- 
ually dried it in two days’ time, and it afterward 
served me to lie upon. 

After this stop we made on to the southward con- 
tinually for ten or twelve days, living very sparing on 
^ our provisions, which began to abate very much, and 
going no oftener into the shore than we were obliged 
to for fresh water. My design in this was to make 
the river Gambia or Senegal, — that is to say, any- 
where about the Cape de Verde, — where I was in 
hopes to meet with some European ship ; and if I did 
not, I knew not what course I had to take, but to 
seek out for the islands, or perish there among the 
negroes. I knew that all the ships from Europe, 
which sailed either to the coast of Guinea or to 
Brazil, or to the East Indies, made this cape, or those 
islands ; and in a word, I put the whole of my fortune 
upon this single point, either that I must meet with 
some ship, or must perish. 

When I had pursued this resolution about ten days 
longer, as I have said, I began to see that the land 
was inhabited ; and in two or three places, as we 
sailed by, we saw people stand upon the shore to look 
at us ; we could also perceive they were quite black, 
and stark naked. I was once inclined to have gone 
on shore to them ; but Xury was my better counsellor, 
and said to me, “ No go, no go.” However, I hauled 
in nearer the shore that I might talk to them, and I 
found they ran along the shore by me a good way. I 
observed they had no weapons in their hands, except 


ESCAPE FROM CAPTIVITY, 


35 


one, who had a long slender stick, which Xury said 
was a lance, and that they would throw them a great 
way with good aim. So I kept at a distance, but 
talked with them by signs as well as I could, and par- 
ticularly made signs for something to eat ; they beck- 
oned to me to stop my boat, and that they would 
fetch me some meat. Upon this I lowered the top of 
my sail, and lay by, and two of them ran up into the 
country, and in less than half an hour came back, and 
brought with them two pieces of dried flesh and some 
corn, such as is the produce of their country ; but we 
neither knew what the one or the other was. How- 
ever, we were willing to accept it, but how to come at 
it was our next dispute, for I was not for venturing 
on shore to them, and they were as much afraid of 
us ; but they took a safe way for us all, for they 
brought it to the shore and laid it down, and went 
and stood a great way off till we fetched it on board, 
and then came close to us again. 

We made signs of thanks to them, for we had no- 
thing to make them amends. But an opportunity 
offered that very instant to oblige them wonderfully ; 
for while we were lying by the shore came two mighty 
creatures, one pursuing the other (as we took it) with 
great fury from the mountains towards the sea; 
whether it was the male pursuing the female, or 
whether they were in sport or in rage, we could not 
tell, any more than we could tell whether it was usual 
or strange, but I believe it was the latter ; because, in 
the first place, those ravenous creatures seldom appear 
but in the night ; and in the second place, we found 
the people terribly frighted, especially the women. 
The man that had the lance or dart did not fly from 
them, but the rest did ; however, as the two creatures 


36 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


ran directly into the water, they did not seem to offer 
to fall upon any of the negroes, but plunged them- 
selves into the sea, and swam about, as if they had 
come for their diversion. At last, one of them began 
to come nearer our boat than at first I expected ; but 
I lay ready for him, for I had loaded my gun with all 
possible expedition, and bade Xury load both the 
others. As soon as he came fairly within my reach, 
I fired, and shot him directly into the head ; immedi- 
ately he sunk down into the water, but rose instantly, 
and plunged up and down, as if he was struggling for 
life, and so indeed he was. He immediately made to 
the shore; but between the wound, which was his 
mortal hurt, and the strangling of the water, he died 
just before he reached the shore. 

It is impossible to express the astonishment of 
these poor creatures at the noise and the fire of my 
gun ; some of them were even ready to die for fear, 
and fell down as dead with the very terror. But 
when they saw the creature dead, and sunk in the 
water, and that I made signs to them to come to the 
shore, they took heart and came to the shore, and be- 
gan to search for the creature. I found him by his 
blood staining the water ; and by the help of a rope, 
which I slung round him, and gave the negroes to 
haul, they dragged him on the shore, and found that 
it was a most curious leopard, spotted, and fine to an 
admirable degree ; and the negroes held up their 
hands with admiration, to think what it was I had 
killed him with. 

The other creature, frighted with the flash of fire 
and the noise of the gun, swam on shore, and ran up 
directly to the mountains from whence they came ; 
nor could I, at that distance, know what it was. I 


ESCAPE FROM CAPTIVITY. 


37 


found quickly the negroes were for eating the flesh of 
this creature, so I was willing to have them take it as 
a favor from me ; which, when I made signs to them 
that they might take him, they were very thankful 
for. Immediately they fell to work with him ; and 
though they had no knife, yet, with a sharpened piece 
of wood, they took off his skin as readily, and much 
more readily, than we could have done with a knife. 
They offered me some of the flesh, which I declined, 
making as if I would give it them, but made signs for 
the skin, which they gave me very freely, and brought 
me a great deal more of their provision, which, though 
I did not understand, yet I accepted. Then I made 
signs to them for some water, and held out one of my 
jars to them, turning it bottom upward, to show that 
it was empty, and that I wanted to have it filled. 
They called immediately to some of their friends, and 
there came two women, and brought a great vessel 
made of earth, and burnt, as I suppose, in the sun ; 
this they set down for me, as before, and I sent Xury 
on shore with my jars, and filled them all three. The 
women were as stark naked as the men. 

I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it 
was, and water ; and leaving my friendly negroes, I 
made forward for about eleven days more, without 
offering to go near the shore, till I saw the land run 
out a great length into the sea, at about the distance 
of four or five leagues before me ; and the sea being 
very calm, I kept a large ofiiiig, to make this point. 

^ At length, doubling the point, at about two leagues 
from the land, I saw plainly land on the other side, 
to seaward ; then I concluded, as it was most certain 
indeed, that this was the Cape de Verde, and those 
the islands, called from thence Cape de Verde Islands. 


38 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


However, they were at a great distance, and I could 
not well tell what I had best to do ; for if I should be 
taken with a fresh wind, I might neither reach one 
nor other. 

In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped 
into the cabin, and sat me down, Xury having the 
helm ; when, on a sudden, the boy cried out, Master, 
master, a ship with a sail ! ” and the foolish boy was 
frighted out of his wits, thinking it must needs be 
some of his master’s ships sent to pursue us, when I 
knew we were gotten far enough out of their reach. 
I jumped out of the cabin, and immediately saw, not 
only the ship, but what she was, viz., that it was a 
Portuguese ship, and, as I thought, was bound to the 
coast of Guinea, for negroes. But when I observed 
the course she steered, I was soon convinced they were 
bound some other way, and did not design to come 
any nearer to the shore ; upon which I stretched out 
to sea as much as I could, resolving to speak with 
them, if possible. 

With all .the sail I could make, I found I should 
not be able to come in their way, but that they would 
be gone by before I could make any signal to them ; 
but after I had crowded to the utmost, and began to 
despair, they, it seems, saw me by the help of their 
perspective glasses, and that it was some European 
boat, which, as they supposed, must belong to some 
ship that was lost, so they shortened sail to let me 
come up. I was encouraged with this ; and as I had 
my patron’s ancient on board, I made a waft of it to 
them for a signal of distress, and fired a gun, both 
which they saw ; for they told me they saw the smoke, 
though they did not hear the gun. Upon these sig- 
nals they very kindly brought to, and lay by for 


ESCAPE FROM CAPTIVITY, 39 

me ; and in about three hours’ time I came up with 
them. 

They asked me what I was, in Portuguese, and in 
Spanish, and in French, but I understood none of 
them ; but at last a Scots sailor, who was on board, 
called to me, and I answered him, and told him I was 
an Englishman, that I had made my escape out of 
slavery from the Moors, at Sallee. Then they bade 
me come on board, and very kindly took me in, and 
all my goods. 

It was an inexpressible joy to me, that any one will 
believe, that I was thus delivered, as I esteemed it, 
from such a miserable, and almost hopeless, condition 
as I was in ; and I immediately offered all I had to 
the captain of the ship, as a return for my deliver- 
ance. But he generously told me he would take no- 
thing from me, but that all I had should be delivered' 
safe to me when I came to the Brazils. “For,” says 
he, “ I have saved your life on no other terms than I 
would be glad to be saved myself ; and it may, one 
time or other, be my lot to be taken up in the same 
condition. Besides,” says he, when I carry you to 
the Brazils, so great a way from your own country, if 
I should take from you what you have, you will be 
starved there, and then I only take away that life I 
have given. No, no. Seignior Inglese,” says he, Mr. 
Englishman, I will carry you thither in charity, and 
those things will help you to buy your subsistence 
there, and your passage home again.” 

As he was charitable in his proposal, so he was just 
in the performance to a tittle ; for he ordered the sea- 
men that none should offer to touch anything I had ; 
then he took everything into his own possession, and 
gave me back an exact inventory of them, that I 


40 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


might have them, even so much as my three earthen 
jars. 

As to my boat, it was a very good one, and that he 
saw, and told me he would buy it of me for the ship’s 
use, and asked me what I would have for it. I told 
him he had been so generous to me in everything that 
I could not offer to make any price of the boat, but 
left it entirely to him; upon which he told me he 
would give me a note of his hand to pay me eighty 
pieces of eight for it at Brazil, and when it came 
there, if any one offered to give more, he would make 
it up. He offered me also sixty pieces of eight more 
for my boy Xury, which I was loath to take ; not that 
I was not willing to let the captain have him, but I 
was very loath to sell the poor boy’s liberty, who had 
assisted me so faithfully in procuring my own. How- 
ever, when I let him know my reason he owned it to 
be just, and offered me this medium, that he would 
give the boy an obligation to set him free in ten years 
if he turned Christian. Upon this, and Xury saying 
he was willing to go to him, I let the captain have 
him. 

We had a very good voyage to the Brazils, and 
arrived in the Bay de Todos los Santos, or All Saints’ 
Bay, in about twenty-two days after. And now I 
was once more delivered from the most miserable of 
all conditions of life ; and what to do next with my- 
self, I was now to consider. 


CHAPTER IV. 


THE VOYAGE TO GUINEA. 

The generous treatment the captain gave me, I can 
never enough remember. He would take nothing of 
me for my passage, gave me twenty ducats for the 
leopard’s skin and forty for the lion’s skin, which I 
had in my boat, and caused everything I had in the 
ship to be punctually delivered me ; and what I was 
willing to sell he bought, such as the case of bottles, 
two of my guns, and a piece of the lump of beeswax 
— for I had made candles of the rest ; in a word, I 
made about 220 pieces of eig^t of all my cargo, and 
with this stock I went on shore in the Brazils. 

I had not been long here, but being recommended 
to the house of a good honest man like himself, who 
had an ingenio as they call it, that is, a plantation 
and a sugar-house, I lived with him some time, and 
acquainted myself by that means with the manner of 
their planting and making of sugar ; and seeing how 
well the planters lived, and how they grew rich sud- 
denly, I resolved, if I could get license to settle there, I 
would turn planter among them, resolving in the mean 
time to find out some way to get my money which I 
had left in London remitted to me. To this purpose, 
getting a kind of a letter of naturalization, I pur- 
chased as much land that was uncured as my money 
would reach, and formed a plan for my plantation 
and settlement, and such a one as might be suitable 


42 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


to the stock which I proposed to myself to receive 
from England. 

I had a neighbor, a Portuguese of Lisbon, but born 
of English parents, whose name was Wells, and in 
much such circumstances as I was. I call him my 
neighbor, because his plantation lay next to mine, and 
we went on very sociably together. My stock was but 
low, as well as his ; and we rather planted for food 
than anything else, for about two years. However, 
we began to increase, and our land began to come 
into order ; so that the third year we planted some 
tobacco, and made each of us a large piece of ground 
ready for planting canes in the year to come. But we 
both wanted help ; and now I found, more than be- 
fore, I had done wrong in parting with my boy Xury. 

But alas ! for me to do wrong that never did right 
was no great wonder. I had no remedy but to go on. 
I was gotten into an employment quite remote to my 
genius, and directly contrary to the life I delighted in, 
and for which I forsook my father’s house, and broke 
through all his good advice ; nay, I was coming into 
the very middle station, or upper degree of low life, 
which my father advised me to before ; and which, if 
I resolved to go on with, I might as well have stayed 
at home, and never have fatigued myself in the world 
as I had done. And I used often to say to myself, 
I could have done this as well in England among my 
friends, as have gone five thousand miles off to do it 
among strangers and savages, in a wilderness, and at 
such a distance as never to hear from any part of the 
world that had the least knowledge of me. 

In this manner I used to look upon my condition 
with the utmost regret. I had nobody to converse 
with, but now and then this neighbor ; no work to be 


THE VOYAGE TO GUINEA. 


43 


done, but by the labor of my hands ; and I used to 
say, I lived just like a man cast away upon some deso- 
late island, that had nobody there but himself. But 
how just has it been ! and how should all men reflect, 
that when they compare their present conditions with 
others that are worse. Heaven may oblige them to 
make the exchange, and be convinced of their former 
felicity by their experience, — I say, how just has it 
been, that the truly solitary life I reflected on in an 
island of mere desolation should be my lot, who had 
so often unjustly compared it with the life which I 
then led, in which, had I continued, I had in all proba- 
bility been exceeding prosperous and rich. 

I was in some degree settled in my measures for 
carrying on the plantation before my kind friend, the 
captain of the ship that took me up at sea, went back ; 
for the ship remained there in providing his loading, 
and preparing for his voyage, near three months; 
when, telling him what little stock I had left behind 
me in London, he gave me this friendly and sincere 
advice : “ Seignior Inglese,” says he, for so he always 
called me, “ if you will give me letters, and a procura- 
tion here in form to me, with orders to the person who 
has your money in London to send your effects to 
Lisbon, to such persons as I shall direct, and in such 
goods as are proper for this country, I will bring you 
the produce of them, God willing, at my return. But 
since human affairs are all subject to changes and dis- 
asters, I would have you give orders but for one hun- 
dred pounds sterling, which, you say, is half your 
stock, and let the hazard be run for the first ; so that 
if it come safe, you may order the rest the same way ; 
and if it miscarry, you may have the other half to 
have recourse to for your supply,” 


44 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


This was so wholesome advice, and looked so 
friendly, that I could not but be convinced it was the 
best course I could take ; so I accordingly prepared 
letters, to the gentlewoman with whom I had left my 
money, and a procuration to the Portuguese captain, 
as he desired. 

I wrote the English captain’s widow a full account 
of all my adventures ; my slavery, escape, and how I 
had met with the Portugal captain at sea, the human- 
ity of his behavior, and in what condition I was now 
in, with all other necessary directions for my supply. 
And when this honest captain came to Lisbon, he 
found means, by some of the English merchants there, 
to send over not the order only, but a full account of 
my story to a merchant at London, who represented 
it effectually to her ; whereupon she not only delivered 
the money, but out of her own pocket sent the Portu- 
gal captain a very handsome present for his humanity 
and charity to me. 

The merchant in London vesting this hundred 
pounds in English goods, such as the captain had 
writ for, sent them directly to him at Lisbon, and he 
brought them all safe to me to the Brazils ; among 
which, without my direction (for I was too young in 
my business to think of them), he had taken care to 
have all sorts of tools, iron-work, and utensils neces- 
sary for my plantation, and which were of great use 
to me. 

When this cargo arrived, I thought my fortune 
made, for I was surprised with joy of it ; and my good 
steward, the captain, had laid out the five pounds, 
which my friend had sent him for a present for him- 
self, to purchase and bring me over a servant under 
bond for six years’ service, and would not accept of 


THE VOYAGE TO GUINEA. 45 

any consideration, except a little tobacco, which I 
would have him accept, being of my own produce. 

Neither was this all ; but my goods being all Eng- 
lish manufactures, such as cloth, stuffs, baize, and 
things particularly valuable and desirable in the coun- 
try, I found means to sell them to a very great advan- 
tage ; so that I may say I had more than four times 
the value of my first cargo, and was now infinitely be- 
yond my poor neighbor, I mean in the advancement of 
my plantation ; for the first thing I did, I bought me a 
negro slave, and an European servant also ; I mean 
another besides that which the captain brought me 
from Lisbon. 

But as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the 
very means of our greatest adversity, so was it with 
me. I went on the next year with great success in 
my plantation. I raised fifty great rolls of tobacco 
on my own ground, more than I had disposed of for 
necessaries among my neighbors ; and these fifty rolls 
being each of above a hundred-weight, were well cured 
and laid by against the return of the fieet from Lisbon. 
And now, increasing in business and in wealth, my 
head began to be full of projects and undertakings 
beyond my reach, such as are, indeed, often the ruin 
of the best heads in business. 

Had I continued in the station I was now in, I had 
room for all the happy things to have yet befallen me 
for which my father so earnestly recommended a quiet, 
retired life, and of which he had so sensibly described 
the middle station of life to be full of. But other 
things attended me, and I was still to be the wilful 
agent of all my own miseries; and particularly, to 
increase my fault and double the reflections upon my- 
self, which in my future sorrows I should have leisure 


46 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


to make. All these miscarriages were procured by 
my apparent obstinate adhering to my foolish inclina- 
tion of wandering abroad, and pursuing that inclination 
in contradiction to the clearest views of doing myself 
good in a fair and plain pursuit of those prospects, 
and those measures of life, which Nature and Provi- 
dence concurred to present me with, and to make my 
duty. 

As I had once done thus in my breaking away from 
my parents, so I could not be content now, but I must 
go and leave the happy view I had of being a rich and 
thriving man in my new plantation, only to pursue a 
rash and immoderate desire of rising faster than the 
nature of the thing admitted ; and thus I cast myself 
down again into the deepest gulf of human misery that 
ever man fell into, or perhaps could be consistent with 
life and a state of health in the world. 

To come, then, by the just degrees to the particulars 
of this part of my story. You may suppose that hav- 
ing now lived almost four years in the Brazils, and 
beginning to thrive and prosper very well upon my 
plantation, I had not only learned the language, but 
had contracted acquaintance and friendship among my 
fellow-planters, as well as among the merchants at St. 
Salvador, which was our port, and that in my dis- 
courses among them I had frequently given them an 
account of my two voyages to the coast of Guinea, the 
manner of trading with the negroes there, and how 
easy it was to purchase upon the coast for trifles — 
such as beads, toys, knives, scissors, hatchets, bits of 
glass, and the like — not only gold-dust, Guinea grains, 
elephants’ teeth, etc., but negroes, for the service of 
the Brazils, in great numbers. 

They listened always very attentively to my dis- 


THE VOYAGE TO GUINEA. 


47 


courses on these heads, hut especially to that part 
which related to the buying negroes ; which was a 
trade, at that time, not only not far entered into, but, 
as far as it was, had been carried on by the assiento^ 
or permission, of the kings of Spain and Portugal, 
and engrossed in the public, so that few negroes 
were brought, and those excessive dear. 

It happened, being in company with some merchants 
and planters of my acquaintance, and talking of those 
things very earnestly, three of them came to me the 
next morning, and told me they had been musing very 
much upon what I had discoursed with them of, the 
last night, and they came to make a secret proposal to 
me. And after enjoining me secrecy, they told me 
that they had a mind to fit out a ship to go to Guinea ; 
that they had all plantations as well as I, and were 
straitened for nothing so much as servants ; that as it 
was a trade that could not be carried on because they 
could not publicly sell the negroes when they came 
home, so they desired to make but one voyage, to 
bring the negroes on shore privately, and divide them 
among their own plantations; and, in a word, the 
question was, whether I would go their supercargo in 
the ship, to manage the trading part upon the coast of 
Guinea ; and they offered me that I should have my 
equal share of the negroes without providing any part 
of the stock. 

This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had 
it been made to any one that had not had a settlement 
and plantation of his own to look after, which was in 
a fair way of coming to be very considerable, and 
with a good stock upon it. But for me, that was thus 
entered and established, and had nothing to do but go 
on as I had begun, for three or four years more, and 


48 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


to have sent for the other hundred pounds from 
England; and who, in that time, and with that little 
addition, could scarce have failed of being worth three 
or four thousand pounds sterling and that increasing 
too — for me to think of such a voyage was the most 
preposterous thing that ever man, in such circum- 
stances, could be guilty of. 

But I, that was born to be my own destroyer, could 
no more resist the offer than I could restrain my first 
rambling designs, when my father’s good counsel was 
lost upon me. In a word, I told them I would go 
with all my heart, if they would undertake to look 
after my plantation in my absence, and would dispose 
of it to such as I should direct if I miscarried. This 
they all engaged to do, and entered into writings or 
covenants to do so; and I made a formal will, dis- 
posing of my plantation and effects, in case of my 
death ; making the captain of the ship that had saved 
my life, as before, my universal heir, but obliging him 
to dispose of my effects as I had directed in my will ; 
one half of the produce being to himself, and the other 
to be shipped to England. 

In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my 
effects, and keep up my plantation. Had I used half 
as much prudence to have looked into my own interest, 
and have made a judgment of what I ought to have 
done and not to have done, I had certainly never gone 
away from so prosperous an undertaking, leaving all 
the probable views of a thriving circumstance, and 
gone upon a voyage to sea, attended with all its com- 
mon hazards, to say nothing of the reasons I had to 
expect particular misfortunes to myself. 

But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dic- 
tates of my fancy rather than my reason. And accord- 


THE VOYAGE TO GUINEA, 


49 


ingly, the ship being fitted out, and the cargo fur- 
nished, and all things done as by agreement by my 
partners in the voyage, I went on board in an evil 
hour, the [first] of [September, 1659], being the same 
day eight year that I went from my father and mother 
at Hull, in order to act the rebel to their authority, and 
the fool to my own interest. 


CHAPTER V. 


THE SHIPWRECK. 

Our ship was about a hundred and twenty tons’ 
burthen, carried six guns and fourteen men, besides 
the master, his boy, and myself. We had on board 
no large cargo of goods, except of such toys as were 
fit for our trade with the negroes, — such as beads, bits 
of glass, shells, and odd trifles, especially little looking- 
glasses, knives, scissors, hatchets, and the like. 

The same day I went on board we set sail, standing 
away to the northward upon our own coast, with design 
to stretch over for the African coast, when they came 
about ten or twelve degrees of northern latitude, 
which, it seems, was the manner of their course in 
those days. W e had very good weather, only excessive 
hot, all the way upon our own coast, till we came the 
height of Cape St. Augustino, from whence, keeping 
farther off at sea, we lost sight of land, and steered as 
if we was bound for the Isle Fernando de Noronha, 
holding our course N. E. by N., and leaving those isles 
on the east. In this course we passed the line in about 
twelve days’ time, and were, by our last observation, 
in 7° 22' northern latitude, when a violent tornado, 
or hurricane, took us quite out of our knowledge. It 
began from the southeast, came about to the north- 
west, and then settled into the northeast, from whence 
it blew in such a terrible manner that for twelve days 
together we could do nothing but drive, and, scudding 


THE SHIPWRECK. 


51 


away before it, let it carry us wherever fate and the 
fury of the winds directed ; and during these twelve 
days, I need not say that I expected every day to be 
swallowed up, nor, indeed, did any in the ship expect 
to save their lives. 

In this distress we had, besides the terror of the 
storm, one of our men die of the calenture, and one 
man and the boy washed overboard. About the 
twelfth day, the weather abating a little, the master 
made an observation as well as he could, and found 
that he was in about eleven degrees north latitude, but 
that he was twenty-two degrees of longitude difference 
west from Cape St. Augustine ; so that he found he was 
gotten upon the coast of Guiana, or the north part 
of Brazil, beyond the river Amazon, toward that of 
the river Orinoco, commonly called the Great River, 
and began to consult with me what course he should 
take, for the ship was leaky and very much disabled, 
and he was going directly back to the coast of Brazil. 

I was positively against that ; and looking over the 
charts of the sea-coast of America with him, we con- 
cluded there was no inhabited country for us to have 
recourse to till we came within the circle of the Car- 
ibbee Islands, and therefore resolved to stand away 
for Barbadoes, which by keeping off at sea, to avoid 
the indraft of the Bay or Gulf of Mexico, we might 
easily perform, as we hoped, in about fifteen days’ sail ; 
whereas we could not possibly make our voyage to 
the coast of Africa without some assistance, both to 
our ship and to ourselves. 

With this design we changed our course, and 
steered away N. W. by W. in order to reach some of 
our English islands, where I hoped for relief ; but our 
voyage was otherwise determined ; for being in the 


52 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


latitude of 12° 18', a second storm came upon us, 
which carried us away with the same impetuosity 
westward, and drove us so out of the very way of all 
human commerce that had all our lives been saved as 
to the sea, we were rather in danger of being devoured 
by savages than ever returning to our own country. 

In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, 
one of our men early in the morning cried out, 
“ Land ! ” and we had no sooner ran out of the cabin 
to look out, in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the 
world we were, but the ship struck upon a sand, and 
in a moment, her motion being so stopped, the sea 
broke over her in such a manner that we expected we 
should all have perished immediately; and we were 
immediately driven into our close quarters, to shelter 
us from the very foam and spray of the sea. 

It is not easy for any one, who has not been in the 
like condition, to describe or conceive the consternation 
of men in such circumstances. We knew nothing 
where we were, or upon what land it was we were 
driven, whether an island or the main, whether inhab- 
ited or not inhabited ; and as the rage of the wind 
was still great, though rather less than at first, we 
could not so much as hope to have the ship hold many 
minutes without breaking in pieces, unless the winds, 
by a kind of miracle, should turn immediately about. 
In a word, we sat looking one upon another, and ex- 
pecting death every moment, and every man acting 
accordingly, as preparing for another world ; for 
there was little or nothing more for us to do in this. 
That which was our present comfort, and all the com- 
fort we had, was that, contrary to our expectation, 
the ship did not break yet, and that the master said 
the wind began to abate. 


THE SHIPWRECK, 


53 


Now, though we thought that the wind did a little 
abate, yet the ship having thus struck upon the sand, 
and sticking too fast for us to expect her getting off, 
we were in a dreadful condition indeed, and had no- 
thing to do but to think of saving our lives as well as 
we could. We had a boat at our stern just before 
the storm, but she was first staved by dashing against 
the ship’s rudder, and in the next place she broke 
away, and either sunk or was driven off to sea, so 
there was no hope from her ; we had another boat on 
board, but how to get her off into the sea was a doubt- 
ful thing. However, there was no room to debate, 
for we fancied the ship would break in pieces every 
minute, and some told us she was actually broken 
already. 

In this distress, the mate of our vessel lays hold of 
the boat, and with the help of the rest of the men they 
got her slung over the ship’s side ; and getting all into 
her, let go, and committed ourselves, being eleven in 
number, to God’s mercy and the wild sea ; for though 
the storm was abated considerably, yet the sea went 
dreadful high upon the shore, and might well be 
called den wild zee,^ as the Dutch call the sea in a 
storm. 

And now our case was very dismal indeed, for we 
all saw plainly that the sea went so high that the 
boat could not live, and that we should be inevitably 
drowned. As to making sail, we had none ; nor if 
we had, could we have done anything with it ; so we 
worked at the oar towards the land, though with heavy 
hearts, like men going to execution, for we all knew 
that when the boat came nearer the shore, she would 
be dashed in a thousand pieces by the breach of the 
sea. However, we committed our souls to God in the 


54 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


most earnest manner ; and the wind driving us towards 
the shore, we hastened our destruction with our own 
hands, pulling as well as we could towards land. 

What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether 
steep or shoal, we knew not ; the only hope that could 
rationally give us the least shadow of expectation was, 
if we might happen into some bay or gulf, or the mouth 
of some river, where by great chance we might have 
run our boat in, or got under the lee of the land, and 
perhaps made smooth water. But there was nothing 
of this appeared ; but as we made nearer and nearer 
the shore, the land looked more frightful than the sea. 

After we had rowed, or rather driven, about a league 
and a half, as we reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain- 
like, came rolling astern of us, and plainly bade us 
expect the coup de grace. In a word, it took us with 
such a fury that -it overset the boat at once ; and sepa- 
rating us, as well from the boat as from one another, 
gave us not time hardly to say, O God ! ” for we 
were all swallowed up in a moment. 

Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which 
I felt when I sunk into the water ; for though I swam 
very well, yet I could not deliver myself from the 
waves so as to draw breath, till that wave having 
driven me, or rather carried me, a vast way on towards 
the shore, and having spent itself, went back, and left 
me upon the land almost dry, but half dead with the 
water I took in. I had so much presence of mind, as 
well as breath left, that seeing myself nearer the main- 
land than I expected, I got upon my feet, and en- 
deavored to make on towards the land as fast as I 
could, before another wave should return and take me 
up again. But I soon found it was impossible to 
avoid it ; for I saw the sea come after me as high as a 


THE SHIPWRECK. 


55 


great hill, and as furious as an enemy, which I had no 
means or strength to contend with. My business was 
to hold my breath, and raise myself upon the water, if 
I could ; and so, by swimming, to preserve my breath- 
ing, and pilot myself towards the shore, if possible ; 
my greatest concern now being that the sea, as it 
would carry me a great way towards the shore when 
it came on, might not carry me back again with it 
when it gave back towards the sea. 

The wave that came upon me again buried me at 
once twenty or thirty feet deep in its own body, and I 
could feel myself carried with a mighty force and swift- 
ness towards the shore a very great way ; but I held 
my breath, and assisted myself to swim still forward 
with all my might. I was ready to burst with holding 
my breath when, as I felt myself rising up, so, to my 
immediate relief, I found my head and hands shoot 
out above the surface of the water ; and though it was 
not two seconds of time that I could keep myself so, 
yet it relieved me greatly, gave me breath and new 
courage. I was covered again with water a good 
while, but not so long but I held it out ; and finding 
the water had spent itself, and began to return, I 
struck forward against the return of the waves, and 
felt ground again with my feet. I stood still a few 
moments to recover breath, and till the water went 
from me, and then took to my heels and ran with 
what strength I had farther towards the shore. But 
neither would this deliver me from the fury of the sea, 
which came pouring in after me again, and twice more 
I was lifted up by the waves and carried forwards as 
before, the shore being very fiat. 

The last time of these two had well near been fatal 
to me ; for the sea, having hurried me along as before, 


66 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


landed me, or rather dashed me, against a piece of a 
rock, and that with such force as it left me senseless, 
and indeed helpless, as to my own deliverance ; for the 
blow taking my side and breast, beat the breath as it 
were quite out of my body ; and had it returned again 
immediately, I must have been strangled in the water. 
But I recovered a little before the return of the waves, 
and seeing I should be covered again with the water, I 
resolved to hold fast by a piece of the rock, and so to 
hold my breath, if possible, till the waVe went back. 
Now as the waves were not so high as at first, being 
near land, I held my hold till the wave abated, and 
then fetched another run, which brought me so near 
the shore that the next wave, though it went over me, 
yet did not so swallow me up as to carry me away, 
and the next run I took I got to the mainland, where, 
to my great comfort, I clambered up the cliffs of 
the shore, and sat me down upon the grass, free from 
danger, and quite out of the reach of the water. 

I was now landed, and safe on shore, and began to 
look up and thank God that my life was saved in a case 
wherein there was some minutes before scarce any 
room to hope. I believe it is impossible to express to 
the life what the ecstasies and transports of the soul 
are when it is so saved, as I may say, out of the very 
grave ; and I do not wonder now at that custom, viz., 
that when a malefactor, who has the halter about his 
neck, is tied up, and just going to be turned off, and 
has a reprieve brought to him — I say, I do not won- 
der that they bring a surgeon with it, to let him blood 
that very moment they tell him of it, that the surprise 
may not drive the animal spirits from the heart, and 
overwhelm him : 

“ For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first.’^ 


THE SHIPWRECK. 


bl 


I walked about on the shore, lifting up my hands, 
and my whole being, as I may say, wrapt up in the 
contemplation of my deliverance, making a thousand 
gestures and motions which I cannot describe, reflect- 
ing upon all my comrades that were drowned, and that 
there should not be one soul saved but myself ; for, as 
for them, I never saw them afterwards, or any sign of 
them, except three of their hats, one cap, and two 
shoes that were not fellows. 

I cast my eyes to the stranded vessel, when the 
breach and froth of the sea being so big I could 
hardly see it, it lay so far off, and considered. Lord ! 
how was it possible I could get on shore ? 

After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable 
part of my condition, I began to look round me to see 
what kind of place I was in, and what was next to be 
done, and I soon found my comforts abate, and that, 
in a word, I had a dreadful deliverance ; for I was 
wet, had no clothes to shift me, nor anything either to 
eat or drink to comfort me, neither did I see any pros- 
pect before me but that of perishing with hunger, or 
being devoured by wild beasts ; and that which 
was particularly afflicting to me was, that I had no 
weapon either to hunt and kill any creature for my 
sustenance, or to defend myself against any other 
creature that might desire to kill me for theirs. In a 
word, I had nothing about me but a knife, a tobacco- 
pipe, and a little tobacco in a box. This was all my 
provision ; and this threw me into terrible agonies of 
mind, that for a while I ran about like a madman. 
Night coming upon me, I began, with a heavy heart, 
to consider what would be my lot if there were any 
ravenous beasts in that country, seeing at night they 
always come abroad for their prey. 


58 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


All the remedy that offered to my thoughts at that 
time was, to get up into a thick bushy tree like a fir, 
but thorny, which grew near me, and where I re- 
solved to sit all night, and consider the next day 
what death I should die, for as yet I saw no prospect 
of life. I walked about a furlong from the shore, to 
see if I could find any fresh water to drink, which I 
did, to my great joy; and having drank, and put a 
little tobacco in my mouth to prevent hunger, I went 
to the tree, and getting up into it, endeavored to 
place myself so, as that if I should sleep I might not 
fall; and having cut me a short stick, like a trun- 
cheon, for my defence, I took up my lodging, and hav- 
ing been excessively fatigued, I fell fast asleep, and 
slept as comfortably as, I believe, few could have 
done in my condition, and found myself the most 
refreshed with it that I think I ever was on such an 


occasion. 


CHAPTER VI. 


THE BAFT. 

When I waked it was broad day, the weather 
clear, and the storm abated, so that the sea did not 
rage and swell as before. But that which surprised 
me most was, that the ship was lifted off in the night 
from the sand where she lay, by the swelling of the 
tide, and was driven up almost as far as the rock 
which I first mentioned, where I had been so bruised 
by the dashing me against it. This being within 
about a mile from the shore where I was, and the 
ship seeming to stand upright still, I wished myself 
on board, that, at least, I might have some necessary 
things for my use. 

When I came down from my apartment in the tree 
I looked about me again, and the first thing I found 
was the boat, which lay as the wind and the sea had 
tossed her up upon the land, about two miles on my 
right hand. I walked as far as I could upon the 
shore to have got to her, but found a neck or inlet of 
water between me and the boat, which was about half 
a mile broad; so I came back for the present, being 
more intent upon getting at the ship, where I hoped 
to find something for my present subsistence. 

A little after noon I found the sea very calm, and 
the tide ebbed so far out that I could come within a 
quarter of a mile of the ship; and here I found a 
fresh renewing of my grief, for I saw, evidently, that 


60 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


if we had kept on board we had been all safe, that is 
to say, we had all got safe on shore, and I had not 
been so miserable as to be left entirely destitute of 
all comfort and company, as I now was. This forced 
tears from my eyes again ; but as there was little re- 
lief in that, I resolved, if possible, to get to the ship ; 
so I pulled off my clothes, for the weather was hot to 
extremity, and took the water. But when I came to 
the ship, my difficulty was still greater to know how 
to get on board; for as she lay aground, and high 
out of the water, there was nothing within my reach 
to lay hold of. I swam round her twice, and the 
second time I spied a small piece of a rope, which I 
wondered I did not see at first, hang down by the 
fore-chains so low as that with great difficulty I got 
hold of it, and by the help of that rope got up into 
the forecastle of the ship. Here I found that the 
ship was bulged, and had a great deal of water in her 
hold, but that she lay so on the side of a bank of 
hard sand, or rather earth, that her stern lay lifted 
up upon the bank, and her head low almost to the 
water. By this means all her quarter was free, and 
all that was in that part was dry; for you may be 
sure my first work was to search and to see what was 
spoiled and what was free. And first I found that 
all the ship’s provisions were dry and untouched by 
the water ; and being very well disposed to eat, I went 
to the bread-room and filled my pockets with biscuit, 
and eat it as I went about other things, for I had no 
time to lose. I also found some rum in the great 
cabin, of which I took a large dram, and which I had 
indeed need enough of to spirit me for what was 
before me. Now I wanted nothing but a boat, to 
furnish myself with many things which I foresaw 
would be very necessary to me. 


THE RAFT. 


61 


It was in vain to sit still and wish for what was 
not to be had, and this extremity roused my applica- 
tion. We had several spare yards, and two or three 
large spars of wood, and a spare topmast or two in 
the ship. I resolved to fall to work with these, and 
flung as many of them overboard as I could manage 
for their weight, tying every one with a rope, that 
they might not drive away. When this was done I 
went down the ship’s side, and, pulling them to me, 
I tied four of them fast together at both ends as well 
as I could, in the form of a raft ; and laying two or 
three short pieces of plank upon them crossways, I 
found I could walk upon it very well, but that it was 
not able to bear any great weight, the pieces being 
too light. So I went to work, and with the carpen- 
ter’s saw I cut a spare topmast into three lengths, 
and added them to my raft, with a great deal of labor 
and pains ; but hope of furnishing myself with neces- 
saries encouraged me to go beyond what I should 
have been able to have done upon another occasion. 

My raft was now strong enough to bear any reason- 
able weight. My next care was what to load it with, 
and how to preserve what I laid upon it from the 
surf of the sea; but I was not long considering this. 
I first laid all the planks or boards upon it that I 
could get, and having considered well what I most 
wanted, I first got three of the seamen’s chests, which 
I had broken open and emptied, and lowered them 
down upon my raft. The first of these I filled with 
provisions, viz., bread, rice, three Dutch cheeses, 
five pieces of dried goat’s flesh, which we lived much 
upon, and a little remainder of European corn, which 
had been laid by for some fowls which we brought to 
sea with us; but the fowls were killed. There had 


62 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


been some barley and wheat together, but, to my 
great disappointment, I found afterwards that the 
rats had eaten or spoiled it all. As for liquors, I 
found several cases of bottles belonging to our skip- 
per, in which were some cordial waters, and, in all, 
about five or six gallons of rack. These I stowed 
by themselves, there being no need to put them into 
the chest, nor no room for them. While I was doing 
this, I found the tide began to flow, though very 
calm, and I had the mortification to see my coat, 
shirt, and waistcoat, which I had left on shore upon 
the sand, swim away; as for my breeches, which were 
only linen, and open-kneed, I swam on board in 
them, and my stockings. However, this put me upon 
rummaging for clothes, of which I found enough, but 
took no more than I wanted for present use; for I 
had other things which my eye was more upon, as, 
first, tools to work with on shore; and it was after 
long searching that I found out the carpenter’s chest, 
which was indeed a very useful prize to me, and much 
more valuable than a ship-loading of gold would have 
been at that time. I got it down to my raft, even 
whole as it was, without losing time to look into it, 
for I knew in general what it contained. 

My next care was for some ammunition and arms ; 
there were two very good fowling-pieces in the great 
cabin, and two pistols; these I secured first, with 
some powder-horns, and a small bag of shot, and two 
old rusty swords. I knew there were three barrels of 
powder in the ship, but knew not where our gunner 
had stowed them; but with much search I found 
them, two of them dry and good, the third had taken 
water; those two I got to my raft with the arms. 
And now I thought myself pretty well freighted, and 


THE RAFT, 


63 


began to think how I should get to shore with them, 
having neither sail, oar, nor rudder; and the least 
capful of wind would have overset all my navigation. 

I had three encouragements. 1. A smooth, calm 
sea. 2. The tide rising and setting in to the shore. 
3. What little wind there was blew me towards the 
land. And thus, having found two or three broken 
oars belonging to the boat, and besides the tools 
which were in the chest, I found two saws, an axe, 
and a hammer, and with this cargo I put to sea. 
For a mile or thereabouts my raft went very well, 
only that I found it drive a little distant from the 
place where I had landed before, by which I per- 
ceived that there was some indraft of the water, and 
consequently I hoped to find some creek or river 
there, which I might make use of as a port to get to 
land with my cargo. 

As I imagined, so it was; there appeared before 
nie a little opening of the land, and I found a strong 
current of the tide set into it, so I guided my raft as 
well as I could to keep in the middle of the stream. 
But here I had like to have suffered a second ship- 
wreck, which, if I had, I think verily would have 
broke my heart; for knowing nothing of the coast, 
my raft ran aground at one end of it upon a shoal, 
and not being aground at the other end, it wanted 
but a little that all my cargo had slipped off towards 
that end that was afloat, and so fallen into the water. 
I did my utmost by setting my back against the 
chests to keep them in their places, but could not 
thrust off the raft with all my strength, neither durst 
I stir from the posture I was in, but holding up the 
chests with all my might, stood in that manner near 
half an hour, in which time the rising of the water 


64 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


brought me a little more upon a level; and a little 
after, the water still rising, my raft floated again, 
and I thrust her off with the oar I had into the chan- 
nel, and then driving up higher, I at length found 
myself in the mouth of a little river, with land on 
both sides, and a strong current or tide running up. 
I looked on both sides for a proper place to get to 
shore, for I was not willing to be driven too high up 
the river, hoping in time to see some ship at sea, and 
therefore resolved to place myself as near the coast 
as I could. 

At length I spied a little cove on the right shore of 
the creek, to which, with great pain and difficulty, I 
guided my raft, and at last got so near as that, 
reaching ground with my oar, I could thrust her 
directly in; but here I had like to have dipped all 
my cargo in the sea again ; for that shore lying pretty 
steep, that is to say, sloping, there was no place to 
land but where one end of my float, if it run on 
shore, would lie so high and the other sink lower, as 
before, that it would endanger my cargo again. All 
that I could do was to wait till the tide was at the 
highest, keeping the raft with my oar like an anchor 
to hold the side of it fast to the shore, near a flat 
piece of ground, which I expected the water would 
flow over; and so it did. As soon as I found water 
enough, for my raft drew about a foot of water, I 
thrust her on upon that flat piece of ground, and 
there fastened or moored her by sticking my two 
broken oars into the ground; one on one side near 
one end, and one on the other side near the other 
end ; and thus I lay till the water ebbed away, and 
left my raft and all my cargo safe on shore. 


CHAPTER VII. 


UNLOADING THE SHIP. 

My next work was to view the country and seek a 
proper place for my habitation, and where to stow 
my goods to secure them from whatever might hap- 
pen. Where I was, I yet knew not; whether on the 
continent, or on an island; whether inhabited, or not 
inhabited; whether in danger of wild beasts, or not. 
There was a hill, not above a mile from me, which 
rose up very steep and high, and which seemed to 
overtop some other hills, which lay as in a ridge from 
it, northward. I took out one of the fowling-pieces 
and one of the pistols, and a horn of powder; and 
thus armed, I travelled for discovery up to the top of 
that hill, where, after I had with great labor and 
difficulty got to the top, I saw my fate to my great 
affliction, viz., that I was in an island environed every 
way with the sea, no land to be seen, except some 
rocks which lay a great way off, and two small islands 
less than this, which lay about three leagues to the 
west. 

I found, also, that the island I was in was barren, 
and, as I saw good reason to believe, uninhabited, 
except by wild beasts, of whom, however, I saw none; 
yet I saw abundance of fowls, but knew not their 
kinds ; neither, when I killed them, could I tell what 
was fit for food, and what not. At my coming back, 
I shot at a great bird which I saw sitting upon a tree 


66 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


on the side of a great wood. I believe it was the first 
gun that had been fired there since the creation of 
the world. I had no sooner fired, but from all the 
parts of the wood there arose an innumerable number 
of fowls of many sorts, making a confused screaming, 
and crying every one according to his usual note ; but 
not one of them of any kind that I knew. As for 
the creature I killed, I took it to be a kind of a hawk, 
its color and beak resembling it, but had no talons 
or claws more than common; its flesh was carrion, 
and fit for nothing. 

Contented with this discovery, I came back to my 
raft, and fell to work to bring my cargo on shore, 
which took me up the rest of that day; and what to 
do with myself at night I knew not, nor indeed 
where to rest; for I was afraid to lie down on the 
ground, not knowing but some wild beast might 
devour me, though, as I afterwards found, there was 
really no need for those fears. However, as well as 
I could, I barricaded myself round with the chests 
and boards that I had brought on shore, and made a 
kind of a hut for that night’s lodging; as for food, I 
yet saw not which way to supply myself, except that 
I had seen two or three creatures like hares run out 
of the wood where I shot the fowl. 

I now began to consider, that I might yet get a 
great many things out of the ship which would be 
useful to me, and particularly some of the rigging 
and sails, and such other things as might come to 
land; and I resolved to make another voyage on 
board the vessel, if possible. And as I knew that 
the first storm that blew must necessarily break her 
all in pieces, I resolved to set all other things apart 
till I got everything out of the ship that I could get. 


UNLOADING THE SHIP. 


67 


Then I called a council, that is to say, in my thoughts, 
whether I should take back the raft, but this appeared 
impracticable; so I resolved to go as before, when 
the tide was down; and I did so, only that I stripped 
before I went from my hut, having nothing on but 
a chequered shirt and a pair of linen drawers, and a 
pair of pumps on my feet. 

I got on board the ship as before, and prepared a 
second raft, and having had experience of the first, I 
neither made this so unwieldy, nor loaded it so hard; 
but yet I brought away several things very useful to 
me; as, first, in the carpenter’s stores I found two 
or three bags full of nails and spikes, a great screw- 
jack, a dozen or two of hatchets, and, above all, that 
most useful thing called a grindstone. All these I 
secured, together with several things belonging to the 
gunner, particularly two or three iron crows, and two 
barrels of musket bullets, seven muskets, and another 
fowling-piece, with some small quantity of powder 
more ; a large bag full of small-shot, and a great roll 
of sheet lead; but this last was so heavy I could not 
hoist it up to get it over the ship’s side. Besides 
these things, I took all the men’s clothes that I could 
find, and a spare foretop sail, a hammock, and some 
bedding; and with this I loaded my second raft, and 
brought them all safe on shore, to my very great com- 
fort. 

I was under some apprehensions during my absence 
from the land that at least my provisions might be 
devoured on shore ; but when I came back, I found 
no sign of any visitor, only there sat a creature like 
a wild-cat upon one of the chests, which, when I 
came towards it, ran away a little distance, and then 
stood still. She sat very composed and unconcerned, 


68 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


and looked full in my face, as if she had a mind to 
be acquainted with me. I presented my gun at her; 
but as she did not understand it, she was perfectly 
unconcerned at it, nor did she offer to stir away; 
upon which I tossed her a bit of biscuit, though, by 
the way, I was not very free of it, for my store was 
not great. However, I spared her a bit, I say, and 
she went to it, smelled of it, and ate it, and looked 
(as pleased) for more ; but I thanked her, and could 
spare no more, so she marched off. 

Having got my second cargo on shore, though I 
was fain to open the barrels of powder and bring 
them by parcels, for they were too heavy, being large 
casks, I went to work to make me a little tent with 
the sail and some poles which I cut for that purpose ; 
and into this tent I brought everything that I knew 
would spoil either with rain or sun ; and I piled all 
the empty chests and casks up in a circle round the 
tent, to fortify it from any sudden attempt, either 
from man or beast. 

When I had done this I blocked up the door of the 
tent with some boards within, and an empty chest set 
up on end without; and spreading one of the beds 
upon the ground, laying my two pistols just at my 
head, and my gun at length by me, I went to bed for 
the first time, and slept very quietly all night, for I 
was very weary and heavy ; for the night before I had 
slept little, and had labored very hard all day, as 
well to fetch all those things from the ship, as to get 
them on shore. 

I had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that 
ever was laid up, I believe, for one man ; but I was 
not satisfied still, for while the ship sat upright in 
that posture, I thought I ought to get everything out 


UNLOADING THE SHIP. 


69 


of her that I could. So every day at low water I 
went on board, and brought away something or other ; 
but, particularly, the third time I went I brought 
away as much of the rigging as I could, as also all 
the small ropes and rope-twine I could get, with a 
piece of spare canvas, which was to mend the sails 
upon occasion, and the barrel of wet gunpowder; in a 
word, I brought away all the sails first and last, only 
that I was fain to cut them in pieces, and bring as 
much at a time as I could; for they were no more 
useful to be sails, but as mere canvas only. 

But that which comforted me more still was that, 
at last of all, after I had made five or six such voy- 
ages as these, and thought I had nothing more to ex- 
pect from the ship that was worth my meddling with, 
— I say, after all this, I found a great hogshead of 
bread, and three large runlets of rum or spirits, and 
a box of sugar, and a barrel of fine flour; this was 
surprising to me, because I had given over expecting 
any more provisions, except what was spoilt by the 
water. I soon emptied the hogshead of that bread, 
and wrapped it up parcel by parcel in pieces of the 
sails, which I cut out; and, in a word, I got all this 
safe on shore also. 

The next day I made another voyage. And now, 
having plundered the ship of what was portable and 
fit to hand out, I began with the cables ; and cutting 
the great cable into pieces, such as I could move, I 
got two cables and a hawser on shore, with all the 
iron -work I could get ; and having cut down the sprit- 
sail yard, and the mizzen yard, and everything I 
could to make a large raft, I loaded it with all those 
heavy goods, and came away. But my good luck 
began now to leave me; for this raft was so un- 


70 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


wieldy, and so overladen, that after I was entered 
the little cove where I had landed the rest of my 
goods, not being able to guide it so handily as I did 
the other, it overset, and threw me and all my cargo 
into the water. As for myself, it was no great harm, 
for I was near the shore ; but as to my cargo, it was 
great part of it lost, especially the iron, which I ex- 
pected would have been of great use to me. How- 
ever, when the tide was out I got most of the pieces 
of cable ashore, and some of the iron, though with 
infinite labor; for I was fain to dip for it into the 
water, a work which fatigued me very much. After 
this I went every day on board, and brought away 
what I could get. 

I had been now thirteen days on shore, and had 
been eleven times on board the ship; in which time 
I had brought away all that one pair of hands could 
well be supposed capable to bring, though I believe 
verily, had the calm weather held, I should have 
brought away the whole ship piece by piece. But 
preparing the twelfth time to go on board, I found 
the wind begin to rise. However, at low water I 
went on board, and though I thought I had rummaged 
the cabin so effectually as that nothing more could be 
found, yet I discovered a locker with drawers in it, 
in one of which I found two or three razors, and one 
pair of large scissors, with some ten or a dozen of 
good knives and forks; in another, I found about 
thirty-six pounds value in money, some European 
coin, some Brazil, some pieces of eight, some gold, 
some silver. 

I smiled to myself at the sight of this money. ‘‘O 
drug! ” said I aloud, “what art thou good for? Thou 
art not worth to me, no, not the taking off of the 


UNLOADING THE SHIP. 


71 


ground; one of those knives is worth all this heap. 
I have no manner of use for thee ; even remain where 
thou art, and go to the bottom as a creature whose 
life is not worth saving.” However, upon second 
thoughts, I took it away; and wrapping all this in a 
piece of canvas, I began to think of making another 
raft ; but while I was preparing this, I found the sky 
overcast, and the wind began to rise, and in a quarter 
of an hour it blew a fresh gale from the shore. It 
presently occurred to me that it was in vain to pre- 
tend to make a raft with the wind off shore, and that 
it was my business to be gone before the tide of flood 
began, otherwise I might not be able to reach the 
shore at all. Accordingly I let myself down into the 
water, and swam across the channel, which lay be- 
tween the ship and the sands, and even that with 
difficulty enough, partly with the weight of the things 
I had about me, and partly the roughness of the 
water; for the wind rose very hastily, and before it 
was quite high water it blew a storm. 

But I was gotten home to my little tent, where I 
lay with all my wealth about me very secure. It 
blew very hard all that night, and in the morning 
when I looked out, behold, no more ship was to be 
seen. I was a little surprised, but recovered myself 
with this satisfactory reflection, viz., that I had lost 
no time, nor abated no diligence, to get everything 
out of her that could be useful to me, and that indeed 
there was little left in her that I was able to bring 
away if I had had more time. 


CHAPTER VIIL 


THE FIRST HABITATION. 

I NOW gave over any more tliouglits of the ship, or 
of anything out of her, except what might drive on 
shore from her wreck, as indeed divers pieces of her 
afterwards did; but those things were of small use 
to me. 

My thoughts were now wholly employed about 
securing myself against either savages, if any should 
appear, or wild beasts, if any were in the island ; and 
I had many thoughts of the method how to do this, 
and what kind of dwelling to make, whether I should 
make me a cave in the earth, or a tent upon the 
earth; and, in short, I resolved upon both, the man- 
ner and description of which it may not be improper 
to give an account of. 

I soon found the place I was in was not for my 
settlement, particularly because it was upon a low 
moorish ground near the sea, and I believed would 
not be wholesome; and more particularly because 
there was no fresh water near it. So I resolved to 
find a more healthy and more convenient spot of 
ground. 

I consulted several things in my situation, which I 
found would be proper for me. First, health and 
fresh water, I just now mentioned. Secondly, shelter 
from the heat of the sun. Thirdly, security from'' 
ravenous creatures, whether men or beasts. Fourthly, 


THE FIRST HABITATION. 


73 


a view to the sea, that if God sent any ship in sight 
I might not lose any advantage for my deliverance, 
of which I was not willing to banish all my expecta- 
tion yet. 

In search of a place proper for this, I found a lit- 
tle plain on the side of a rising hill, whose front 
towards this little plain was steep as a house-side, so 
that nothing could come down upon me from the top. 
On the side of this rock there was a hollow place, 
worn a little way in, like the entrance or door of a 
cave ; but there was not really any cave, or way into 
the rock at all. 

On the flat of the green, just before this hollow 
place, I resolved to pitch my tent. This plain was 
not above an hundred yards broad, and about twice 
as long, and lay like a green before my door, and at 
the end of it descended irregularly every way down 
into the low grounds by the seaside. It was on the 
N. N. W. side of the hill, so that I was sheltered 
from the heat every day, till it came to a W. and by 
S. sun, or thereabouts, which in those countries is 
near the setting. 

Before I set up my tent, I drew a half -circle before 
the hollow place, which took in about ten yards in its 
semi-diameter from the rock, and twenty yards in its 
diameter from its beginning and ending. In this 
half -circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes, driv- 
ing them into the ground till they stood very firm 
like piles, the biggest end being out of the ground 
about five feet and a half, and sharpened on the top. 
The two rows did not stand above six inches from 
one another. 

Then I took the pieces of cable which I had cut in 
the ship, and laid them in rows one upon another, 


74 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


within the circle, between these two rows of stakes, 
up to the top, placing other stakes in the inside lean- 
ing against them, about two feet and a half high, like 
a spur to a post; and this fence was so strong that 
neither man nor beast could get into it, or over it. 
This cost me a great deal of time and labor, espe- 
cially to cut the piles in the woods, bring them to the 
place, and drive them into the earth. 

The entrance into this place I made to be not by a 
door, but by a short ladder to go over the top ; which 
ladder, when I was in, I lifted over after me, and so 
I was completely fenced in, and fortified, as I thought, 
from all the world, and consequently slept secure in 
the night, which otherwise I could not have done; 
though, as it appeared afterward, there was no need 
of all this caution from the enemies that I appre- 
hended danger from. 

Into this fence or fortress, with infinite labor, I 
carried all my riches, all my provisions, ammunition, 
and stores, of which you have the account above; and 
I made me a large tent, which, to preserve me from 
the rains that in one part of the year are very violent 
there, I made double, viz., one smaller tent within, 
and one larger tent above it, and covered the upper- 
most with a large tarpaulin, which I had saved among 
the sails. And now I lay no more for a while in the 
bed which I had brought on shore, but in a hammock, 
which was indeed a very good one, and belonged to 
the mate of the ship. 

Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and 
everything that would spoil by the wet ; and having 
thus enclosed all my goods, I made up the entrance, 
which, till now, I had left open, and so passed and 
repassed, as I said, by a short ladder. 


THE FIRST HABITATION, 


75 


When I had done this, I began to work my way 
into the rock; and bringing all the earth and stones 
that I dug down out through my tent, I laid them up 
within my fence in the nature of a terrace, so that it 
raised the ground within about a foot and a half ; and 
thus I made me a cave just behind my tent which 
served me like a cellar to my house. 

It cost me much labor and many days before all 
these things were brought to perfection, and therefore 
I must go back to some other things which took up 
some of my thoughts. At the same time it happened, 
after I had laid my scheme for the setting up my 
tent and making the cave, that a storm of rain fall- 
ing from a thick dark cloud, a sudden flash of light- 
ning happened, and after that a great clap of thunder, 
as is naturally the effect of it. I was not so much 
surprised with the lightning as I was with a thought 
which darted into my mind as swift as the lightning 
itself. Oh, my powder ! My very heart sunk within 
me when I thought, that at one blast all my powder 
might be destroyed, on which, not my defence only, 
but the providing me food, as I thought, entirely 
depended. I was nothing near so anxious about my 
own danger; though had the powder took fire, I had 
never known who had hurt me. 

Such impression did this make upon me that after 
the storm was over I laid aside all my works, my 
building, and fortifying, and applied myself to make 
bags and boxes to separate the powder, and keep it a 
little and a little in a parcel, in hope that whatever 
might come it might not all take fire at once, and to 
keep it so apart that it should not be possible to 
make one part fire another. I finished this w^ork in 
about a fortnight ; and I think my powder, which in 


76 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


all was about 240 pounds’ weight, was divided in not 
less than a hundred parcels. As to the barrel that 
had been wet, I did not apprehend any danger from 
that, so I placed it in my new cave, which in my 
fancy I called my kitchen, and the rest I hid up and 
down in holes among the rocks, so that no wet might 
come to it, marking very carefully where I laid it. 

In the interval of time while this was doing, I 
went out once, at least, every day with my gun, as 
well to divert myself as to see if I could kill any- 
thing fit for food, and as near as I could to acquaint 
myself with what the island produced. The first 
time I went out, I presently discovered that there 
were goats in the island, which was a great satisfac- 
tion to me ; but then it was attended with this mis- 
fortune to me, viz., that they were so shy, so subtle, 
and so swift of foot that it was the difficultest thing 
in the world to come at them. But I was not dis- 
couraged at this, not doubting but I might now and 
then shoot one, as it soon happened; for after I had 
found their haunts a little, I laid wait in this manner 
for them. I observed if they saw me in the valleys, 
though they were upon the rocks, they would run 
away as in a terrible fright; but if they were feeding 
in the valleys, and I was upon the rocks, they took 
no notice of me, from whence I concluded that, by 
the position of their optics, their sight was so directed 
downward that they did not readily see objects that 
were above them. So afterward I took this method: 
I always climbed the rocks first to get above them, 
and then had frequently a fair mark. The first shot 
I made among these creatures I killed a she goat, 
which had a little kid by her, which she gave suck 
to, which grieved me heartily; but when the old one 


THE FIRST HABITATION. 


77 


fell, the kid stood stock still by her till I came and 
took her up; and not only so, but when I carried the 
old one with me upon my shoulders, the kid followed 
me quite to my enclosure; upon which I laid down 
the dam, and took the kid in my arms, and carried it 
over my pale, in hopes to have bred it up tame; but 
it would not eat, so I was forced to kill it, and eat it 
myself. These two supplied me with flesh a great 
while, for I eat sparingly, and saved my provisions, 
my bread especially, as much as possibly I could. 

Having now fixed my habitation, I found it abso- 
lutely necessary to provide a place to make a fire in, 
and fuel to burn; and what I did for that, as also 
how I enlarged my cave, and what conveniences I 
made, I shall give a full account of in its place. 
But I must first give some little account of myself, 
and of my thoughts about living, which it may well 
be supposed were not a few. 

I had a dismal prospect of my condition ; for as I 
was not cast away upon that island without being 
driven, as is said, by a violent storm, quite out of 
the course of our intended voyage, and a great way, 
viz., some hundreds of leagues, out of the ordinary 
course of the trade of mankind, I had great reason to 
consider it as a determination of Heaven that in this 
desolate place, and in this desolate manner, I should 
end my life. The tears would run plentifully down 
my face when I made these reflections, and sometimes 
I would expostulate with myself, why Providence 
should thus completely ruin its creatures, and render 
them so absolutely miserable, so without help aban- 
doned, so entirely depressed, that it could hardly be 
rational to be thankful for such a life. 

But something always returned swift upon me to 


78 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


check these thoughts, and to reprove me; and par- 
ticularly one day, walking with my gun in my hand 
by the seaside, I was very pensive upon the subject 
of my present condition, when Reason, as it were, 
expostulated with me t’ other way, thus: ^‘Well, you 
are in a desolate condition, it is true, but pray re- 
member, where are the rest of you? Did not you 
come eleven of you into the boat? Where are the 
ten? Why were not they saved, and you lost? 
Why were you singled out ? Is it better to be here, 
or there?” And then I pointed to the sea. All 
evils are to be considered with the good that is in 
them, and with what worse attends them. 

Then it occurred to me again, how well I was fur- 
nished for my subsistence, and what would have been 
my case if it had not happened, which was an hun- 
dred thousand to one, that the ship floated from the 
place where she first struck and was driven so near to 
the shore that I had time to get all these things out 
of her; what would have been my case, if I had been 
to have lived in the condition in which I at first came 
on shore, without necessaries of life, or necessaries 
to supply and procure them? ‘‘Particularly,” said I 
aloud (though to myself), “what should I have done 
without a gun, without ammunition, without any 
tools to make anything or to work with, without 
clothes, bedding, a tent, or any manner of cover- 
ing?” and that now I had all these to a sufficient 
quantity, and was in a fair way to provide myself in 
such a manner, as to live without my gun when my 
ammunition was spent; so that I had a tolerable view 
of subsisting without any want as long as I lived. 
For I considered from the beginning how I would 
provide for the accidents that might happen, and fop 


THE FIRST HABITATION. 


79 


the time that was to come, even not only after my 
ammunition should be spent, but even after my health 
or strength should decay. 

I confess I had not entertained any notion of my 
ammunition being destroyed at one blast — I mean, 
my powder being blown up by lightning; and this 
made the thoughts of it so surprising to me when it 
lightened and thundered, as I observed just now. 


CHAPTER IX. 


BALANCING ACCOUNTS. 

And now being to enter into a melancholy relation 
of a scene of silent life such, perhaps, as was never 
heard of in the world before, I shall take it from its 
beginning, and continue it in its order. It was, by 
my account, the 30th of September when, in the 
manner as above said, I first set foot upon this horrid 
island, when the sun, being to us in its autumnal 
equinox, was almost just over my head, for I reck- 
oned myself, by observation, to be in the latitude of 
9° 22' north of the line. 

After I had been there about ten or twelve days, 
it came into my thoughts that I should lose my reck- 
oning of time for want of books and pen and ink, and 
should even forget the Sabbath days from the work- 
ing. days ; but to prevent this, I cut it with my knife 
upon a large post, in capital letters; and making it 
into a great cross^ I set it upon the shore where I first 
landed, viz., ‘‘I came on shore here on the 30th of 
September, 1659.” Upon the sides of this square 
post I cut every day a notch with my knife, and every 
seventh notch was as long again as the rest, and 
every first day of the month as long again as that 
long one; and thus I kept my calendar, or weekly, 
monthly, and yearly reckoning of time. 

In the next place we are to observe, that among 


BALANCING ACCOUNTS. 


81 


the many things which I brought out of the ship in 
the several voyages which, as above mentioned, I 
made to it, I got several things of less value, but not 
all less useful to me, which I omitted setting down 
before ; as in particular, pens, ink, and paper, several 
parcels in the captain’s, mate’s, gunner’s, and car- 
penter’s keejDing, three or four compasses, some 
mathematical instruments, dials, perspectives, charts, 
and books of navigation, all which I huddled to- 
gether, whether I might want them or no. Also I 
found three very good Bibles, which came to me in 
my cargo from England, and which I had packed up 
among my things; some Portuguese books also, and 
among them two or three Popish prayer-books, and 
several other books, all which I carefully secured. 
And I must not forget that we had in the ship a dog 
and two cats, of whose eminent history I may have 
occasion to say something in its place ; for I carried 
both the cats with me; and as for the dog, he jumped 
out of the ship of himself, and swam on shore to me 
the day after I went on shore with my first cargo, 
and was a trusty servant to me many years. I 
wanted nothing that he could fetch me, nor any com- 
pany that he could make up to me ; I only wanted to 
have him talk to me, but that would not do. As I 
observed before, I found pen, ink, and paper, and I 
husbanded them to the utmost; and I shall show that 
while my ink lasted, I kept things very exact; but 
after that was gone, I could not, for I could not make 
any ink by any means that I could devise. 

And this put me in mind that I wanted many 
things, notwithstanding all that I had amassed to- 
gether; and of these, this of ink was one, as also 
spade, pick-axe, and shovel (to dig or remove the 


82 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


earth), needles, pins, and thread; as for linen, I soon 
learned to want that without much difficulty. 

This want of tools made every work I did go on 
heavily ; and it was near a whole year before I had 
entirely finished my little pale or surrounded habita- 
tion. The piles or stakes, which were as heavy as I 
could well lift, were a long time in cutting and pre- 
paring in the woods, and more by far in bringing 
home ; so that I spent sometimes two days in cutting 
and bringing home one of those posts, and a third 
day in driving it into the ground ; for which purpose 
I got a heavy piece of wood at first, but at last be- 
thought myself of one of the iron crows, which, how- 
ever, though I found it, yet it made driving those 
posts or piles very laborious and tedious work. 

But what need I have been concerned at the te- 
diousness of anything I had to do, seeing I had time 
enough to do it in? nor had I any other employment, 
if that had been over, — at least, that I could foresee, 
— except the ranging the island to seek for food, 
whieh I did more or less every day. 

I now began to consider seriously my condition, 
and the circumstance I was redueed to ; and I drew 
up the state of my affairs in writing; not so much to 
leave them to any that were to come after me, for I 
was like to have but few heirs, as to deliver my 
thoughts from daily poring upon them, and afflicting 
my mind. And as my reason began now to master 
my despondency, I began to comfort myself as well 
as I could, and to set the good against the evil, that 
I might have something to distinguish my case from 
worse; and I stated it very impartially, like debtor 
and creditor, the comforts I enjoyed against the mis- 
eries I suffered, thus: 


BALANCING ACCOUNTS. 


83 


Evil. 

I am cast upon a hor- 
rible desolate island, void 
of all hope of recovery. 

I am singled out and 
separated, as it were, from 
all the world to be miser- 
able. 


I am divided from man- 
kind, a solitaire, one ban- 
ished from human society. 

I have not clothes to 
cover me. 


I am without any de- 
fence or means to resist 
any violence of man or 
beast. 


I have no soul to speak 
to, or relieve me. 


Good. 

But I am alive, and 
not drowned, as all my 
ship’s company was. 

But I am singled out, 
too, from all the ship’s 
crew to be spared from 
death; and He that mi- 
raculously saved me from 
death, can deliver me from 
this condition. 

But I am not starved 
and perishing on a barren 
place, affording no suste- 
nance. 

But I am in a hot cli- 
mate, where if I had 
clothes I could hardly 
wear them. 

But I am cast on an 
island, where I see no 
wild beasts to hurt me, 
as I saw on the coast of 
Africa ; and what if I had 
been shipwrecked there ? 

But God wonderfully 
sent the ship in near 
enough to the shore, that 
I have gotten out so 
many necessary things as 
will either supply my 
wants, or enable me to 
supply myself even as 
long as I live. 


84 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony, 
that there was scarce any condition in the world so 
miserable but there was something negative or some- 
thing positive to be thankful for in it ; and let this 
stand as a direction from the experience of the most 
miserable of all conditions in this world, that we may 
always find in it something to comfort ourselves from, 
and to set in the description of good and evil on the 
credit side of the account. 

Having now brought my mind a little to relish my 
condition, and given over looking out to sea, to see if 
I could spy a ship, — I say, giving over these things, 
I began to apply myself to accommodate my way of 
living, and to make things as easy to me as I could. 

I have already described my habitation, which was 
a tent under the side of a rock, surrounded with a 
strong pale of posts and cables; but I might now 
rather call it a wall, for I raised a kind of wall up 
against it of turfs, about two feet thick on the out- 
side, and after some time — I think it was a year and 
a half — I raised rafters from it leaning to the rock, 
and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees and 
such things as I could get to keep out the rain, which 
I found at some times of the year very violent. 

I have already observed how I brought all my 
goods into this pale, and into the cave which I had 
made behind me. But I must observe, too, that at 
first this was a confused heap of goods, which as they 
lay in no order, so they took up all my place ; I had 
no room to turn myself. So I set myself to enlarge 
my cave and works farther into the earth; for it was 
a loose sandy rock, which yielded easily to the labor 
I bestowed on it. And so, when I found I was pretty 
safe as to beasts of prey, I worked sideways to the 


BALANCING ACCOUNTS, 


85 


right hand into the rock; and then, turning to the 
right again, worked quite out, and made me a door 
to come out on the outside of my pale or fortification. 
This gave me not only egress and regress, as it were 
a back way to my tent and to my storehouse, but gave 
me room to stow my goods. 

And now I began to apply myself to make such 
necessary things as I found I most wanted, as par- 
ticularly a chair and a table ; for without these I was 
not able to enjoy the few comforts I had in the world. 
I could not write or eat, or do several things with so 
much pleasure without a table. 

So I went to work ; and here I must needs observe, 
that as reason is the substance and original of the 
mathematics, so by stating and squaring everything 
by reason, and by making the most rational judgment 
of things, every man may be in time master of every 
mechanic art. I had never handled a tool in my 
life; and yet in time, by labor, application, and con- 
trivance, I found at last that I wanted nothing but 
I could have made it, especially if I had had tools. 
However, I made abundance of things even without 
tools, and some with no more tools than an adze and 
a hatchet, which, perhaps, were never made that way 
before, and that with infinite labor. For example, 
if I wanted a board, I had no other way but to cut 
down a tree, set it on an edge before me, and hew it 
flat on either side with my axe, till I had brought it 
to be thin as a plank, and then dub it smooth with 
my adze. It is true, by this method I could make 
but one board out of a whole tree ; but this I had no 
remedy for but patience, any more than I had for the 
prodigious deal of time and labor which it took me 
up to make a plank or board. But my time or labor 


86 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


was little worth, and so it was as well employed one 
way as another. 

However, I made me a table and a chair, as I ob- 
served above, in the first place, and this I did out of 
the short pieces of boards that I brought on my raft 
from the ship. But when I had wrought out some 
boards, as above, I made large shelves of the breadth 
of a foot and a half one over another, all along one 
side of my cave, to lay all my tools, nails, and iron- 
work ; and, in a word, to separate everything at large 
in their places, that I might come easily at them. 
I knocked pieces into the wall of the rock to hang my 
guns and all things that would hang up; so that had 
my cave been to be seen, it looked like a general 
magazine of all necessary things; and I had every- 
thing so ready at my hand that it was a great plea- 
sure to me to see all my goods in such order, and 
especially to find my stock of all necessaries so great. 

And now it was when I began to keep a journal of 
every day’s employment; for, indeed, at first, I was 
in too much hurry, and not only hurry as to labor, 
but in too much discomposure of mind; and my jour- 
nal would have been full of many dull things. For 
example, I must have said thus : 

“ Septemher 30. — After I got to shore, and had 
escaped drowning, instead of being thankful to God 
for my deliverance, having first vomited with the 
great quantity of salt water which was gotten into my 
stomach, and recovering myself a little, I ran about 
the shore, wringing my hands, and beating my head 
and face, exclaiming at my misery, and crying out, I 
was undone, undone till, tired and faint, I was forced 
to lie down on the ground to repose; but durst not 
sleep, for fear of being devoured. 


BALANCING ACCOUNTS. 


87 


‘‘Some days after this, and after I had been on 
board the ship, and got all that I could out of her, yet 
I could not forbear getting up to the top of a little 
mountain, and looking out to sea, in hopes of seeing 
a ship ; then fancy at a vast distance I spied a sail, 
please myself with the hopes of it, and then, after 
looking steadily till I was almost blind, lose it quite, 
and sit down and weep like a child, and thus increase 
my misery by my folly.” 

But having gotten over these things in some 
measure, and having settled my household stuff and 
habitation, made me a table and a chair, and all as 
handsome about me as I could, I began to keep my 
journal, of which I shall here give you the copy 
(though in it will be told all these particulars over 
again) as long as it lasted; for, having no more ink, 
I was forced to leave it off. 


CHAPTER X. 


THE JOUKNAL. 

September 30, 1659. — I, poor miserable Robinson 
Crusoe, being shipwrecked, during a dreadful storm, 
in the offing, came on shore on this dismal unfortu- 
nate island, which I called the Island of Despair, all 
the rest of the ship’s company being drowned, and 
myself almost dead. 

All the rest of that day I spent in afflicting myself 
at the dismal circumstances I was brought to, viz., I 
had neither food, house, clothes, weapon, or place to 
fly to ; and in despair of any relief, saw nothing but 
death before me ; either that I should be devoured by 
wild beasts, murdered by savages, or starved to death 
for want of food. At the approach of night, I slept 
in a tree for fear of wild creatures, but slept soundly, 
though it rained all night. 

October 1. — In the morning I saw, to my great 
surprise, the ship had floated with the high tide, and 
was driven on shore again much nearer the island; 
which, as it was some comfort on one hand, for see- 
ing her sit upright, and not broken to pieces, I hoped, 
if the wind abated, I might get on board, and get 
some food and necessaries out of her for my relief; 
so, on the other hand, it renewed my grief at the loss 
of my comrades, who, I imagined, if we had all 
stayed on board, might have saved the ship, or at 
least that they would not have been all drowned as 


THE JOURNAL. 


89 


they were; and that had the men been saved, we 
might perhaps have built us a boat out of the ruins 
of the ship, to have carried us to some other part of 
the world. I spent great part of this day in perplex- 
ing myself on these things ; but at length seeing the 
ship almost dry, I went upon the sand as near as I 
could, and then swam on board ; this day also it con- 
tinued raining, though with no wind at all. 

From the of October to the 24^A. — All these 
days entirely spent in many several voyages to get all 
I could out of the ship, which I brought on shore, 
every tide of flood, upon rafts. Much rain also in 
these days, though with some intervals of fair wea- 
ther ; but, it seems, this was the rainy season. 

Oct. 20. — I overset my raft, and all the goods I 
had got upon it; but being in shoal water, and the 
things being chiefly heavy, I recovered many of them 
when the tide was out. 

Oct. 25. — It rained all night and all day, with 
some gusts of wind, during which time the ship broke 
in pieces, the wind blowing a little harder than be- 
fore, and was no more to be seen, except the wreck 
of her, and that only at low water. I spent this day 
in covering and securing the goods which I had saved, 
that the rain might not spoil them. 

Oct. 26. — I walked about the shore almost all 
day to And out a place to fix my habitation, greatly 
concerned to secure myself from an attack in the 
night, either from wild beasts or men. Towards 
night I fixed upon a proper place under a rock, and 
marked out a semicircle for my encampment, which 
I resolved to strengthen with a work, wall, or fortifi- 
cation made of double piles, lined within with cables, 
and without with turf. 


90 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


From the 26th to the 30th I worked very hard in 
carrying all my goods to my new habitation, though 
some part of the time it rained exceeding hard. 

The 31st, in the morning, I went out into the island 
with my gun to see for some food, and discover the 
country; when I killed a she goat, and her kid fol- 
lowed me home, which I afterwards killed also, be- 
cause it would not feed. 

Nov. 1. — I set up my tent under a rock, and lay 
there for the first night, making it as large as I could, 
with stakes driven in to swing my hammock upon. 

Nov. 2. — I set up all my chests and boards, and 
the pieces of timber which made my rafts, and with 
them formed a fence round me, a little within the 
place I had marked out for my fortification. 

Nov. 3. — I went out with my gun, and killed two 
fowls like ducks, which were very good food. In the 
afternoon went to work to make me a table. 

Nov. 4. — This morning I began to order my times 
of work, of going out with my gun, time of sleep, 
and time of diversion, viz., every morning I walked 
out with my gun for two or three hours, if it did not 
rain ; then emj)loyed myself to work till about eleven 
o’clock; then eat what I had to live on; and from 
twelve to two I lay down to sleep, the weather being 
excessive hot ; and then in the evening to work again. 
The working part of this day and of the next were 
wholly employed in making my table ; for I was yet 
but a very sorry workman, though time and necessity 
made me a complete natural mechanic soon after, as 
I believe it would do any one else. 

Nov. 6. — This day went abroad with my gun and 
my dog, and killed a wild-cat; her skin pretty soft, 
but her flesh good for nothing. Every creature I 


THE JOURNAL. 


91 


killed, I took off the skins and preserved them. 
Coming back by the seashore, I saw many sorts of 
sea-fowls, which I did not understand ; but was sur- 
prised, and almost frighted, with two or three seals, 
which, while I was gazing at, not well knowing what 
they were, got into the sea, and escaped me for that 
time. 

Nov. 6. — After my morning walk I went to work 
with my table again, and finished it, though not to 
my liking; nor was it long before I learned to mend 
it. 

Nov. 7. — Now it began to be settled fair weather. 
The 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and part of the 12th (for the 
11th was Sunday) I took wholly up to make me a 
chair, and with much ado, brought it to a tolerable 
shape, but never to please me; and even in the mak- 
ing, I pulled it in pieces several times. Note : I soon 
neglected my keeping Sundays; for, omitting my 
mark for them on my post, I forgot which was which. 

Nov. 13. — This day it rained, which refreshed 
me exceedingly, and cooled the earth; but it was 
accompanied with terrible thunder and lightning, 
which frighted me dreadfully, for fear of my powder. 
As soon as it was over, I resolved to separate my 
stock of powder into as many little parcels as possi- 
ble, that it might not be in danger. 

Nov. 14, 15, 16. — These three days I spent in 
making little square chests or boxes, which might 
hold about a pound, or two pound at most, of powder; 
and so putting the powder in, I stowed it in places 
as secure and remote from one another as possible. 
On one of these three days I killed a large bird that 
was good to eat, but I know not what to call it. 

Nov. 17. — This day I began to dig behind my 


92 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


tent into the rock, to make room for my farther con- 
veniency. Note: three things I wanted exceedingly 
for this work, viz., a pick-axe, a shovel, and a wheel- 
barrow or basket; so I desisted from my work, and 
began to consider how to supply that want, and make 
me some tools. As for a pick-axe, I made use of the 
iron crows, which were proper enough, though heavy; 
but the next thing was a shovel or spade. This was 
so absolutely necessary that indeed I could do no- 
thing effectually without it; but what kind of one to 
make I knew not. 

Nov. 18. — The next day, in searching the woods, 
I found a tree of that wood, or like it, which in the 
Brazils they call the iron-tree, for its exceeding hard- 
ness; of this, with great labor, and almost spoiling 
my axe, I cut a piece, and brought it home, too, with 
difficulty enough, for it was exceeding heavy. 

The excessive hardness of the wood, and having no 
other way, made me a long while upon this machine, 
for I worked it effectually, by little and little, into 
the form of a shovel or spade, the handle exactly 
shaped like ours in England, only that the broad 
part having no iron shod upon it at bottom, it would 
not last me so long. However, it served well enough 
for the uses which I had occasion to put it to; but 
never was a shovel, I believe, made after that fash- 
ion, or so long a-making. 

I was still deficient, for I wanted a basket or a 
wheelbarrow. A basket I could not make by any 
means, having no such things as twigs that would 
bend to make wicker ware, at least none yet found out. 
And as to a wheelbarrow, I fancied I could make all 
but the wheel, but that I had no notion of, neither 
did I know how to go about it; besides, I had no 


THE JOURNAL, 


93 


possible way to make the iron gudgeons for the spin- 
dle or axis of the wheel to run in, so I gave it over; 
and so for carrying away the earth which I dug out 
of the cave, I made me a thing like a hod which the 
laborers carry mortar in, when they serve the brick- 
layers. 

This was not so difficult to me as the making the 
shovel; and yet this, and the shovel, and the attempt 
which I made in vain to make a wheelbarrow, took 
me up no less than four days; I mean always, except- 
ing my morning walk with my gun, which I seldom 
failed, and very seldom failed also bringing home 
something fit to eat. 

Nov, 23. — My other work having now stood still 
because of my making these tools, when they were 
finished I went on, and working every day, as my 
strength and time allowed, I spent eighteen days 
entirely in widening and deepening my cave, that it 
might hold my goods commodiously. 

Note : During all this time I worked to make this 
room or cave spacious enough to accommodate me as 
a warehouse or magazine, a kitchen, a dining-room, 
and a cellar ; as for my lodging, I kept to the tent, 
except that sometimes in the wet season of the year 
it rained so hard that I could not keep myself dry, 
which caused me afterwards to cover all my place 
within my pale with long poles, in the form of raft- 
ers, leaning against the rock, and load them with 
flags and large leaves of trees, like a thatch. 

December 10. — I began now to think my cave or 
vault finished, when on a sudden (it seems I had 
made it too large) a great quantity of earth fell down 
from the top and one side, so much that, in short, it 
frighted me, and not without reason too ; for if I had 


94 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


been under it, I had never wanted a grave-digger. 
Upon this disaster I had a great deal of work to do 
over again; for I had the loose earth to carry out; 
and, which was of more importance, I had the ceil- 
ing to prop up, so that I might be sure no more 
would come down. 

Dec. 11. — This day I went to work with it accord- 
ingly, and got two shores or posts pitched upright to 
the top, with two pieces of boards across over each 
post. This I finished the next day; and setting more 
posts up with boards, in about a week more I had the 
roof secured ; and the posts, standing in rows, served 
me for partitions to part of my house. 

Dec. 17. — From this day to the 20th I placed 
shelves, and knocked up nails on the posts to hang 
everything up that could be hung up; and now I 
began to be in some order within doors. 

Dec. 20. — Now I carried everything into the cave, 
and began to furnish my house, and set up some 
pieces of boards, like a dresser, to order my victuals 
upon ; but boards began to be very scarce with me ; 
also I made me another table. 

Dec. 24. — Much rain all night and all day; no 
stirring out. 

Dec. 25. — Kain all day. 

Dec. 26. —No rain, and the earth much cooler 
than before, and pleasanter. 

Dec. 27. — Killed a young goat, and lamed an- 
other, so that I catched it, and led it home in a 
string. When I had it home, I bound and splintered 
up its leg, which was broke. N. B. — I took such 
care of it that it lived ; and the leg grew well and as 
strong as ever; but by my nursing it so long it grew 
tame, and fed upon the little green at my door, and 


THE JOURNAL, 


95 


would not go away. This was the first time that I 
entertained a thought of breeding up some tame 
creatures, that I might have food when my powder 
and shot was all spent. 

Dec. 28, 29, 30. — Great heats and no breeze, so 
that there was no stirring abroad, except in the even- 
ing, for food. This time I spent in putting all my 
things in order within doors. 

January 1. — Very hot still, but I went abroad 
early and late with my gun, and lay still in the mid- 
dle of the day. This evening, going farther into the 
valleys which lay towards the centre of the island, I 
found there was plenty of goats, though exceeding 
shy, and hard to come at. However, I resolved to 
try if I could not bring my dog to hunt them down. 

Jan. 2. — Accordingly, the next day, I went out 
with my dog, and set him upon the goats ; but I was 
mistaken, for they all faced about upon the dog; and 
he knew his danger too well, for he would not come 
near them. 

Jan. 3. — I began my fence or wall; which, being 
still jealous of my being attacked by somebody, I 
resolved to make very thick and strong. 

N. B. — This wall being described before, I pur-^ 
posely omit what was said in the journal. It is suffi- 
cient to observe that I was no less time than from 
the 3d of January to the 14th of April working, 
finishing, and perfecting this wall, though it was no 
more than about twenty -four yards in length, being 
a half -circle from one place in the rock to another 
place about eight yards from it, the door of the cave 
being in the centre behind it. 

All this time I worked very hard, the rains hinder- 
ing me many days, nay, sometimes weeks together; 


96 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


but I thought I should never be perfectly secure till 
this wall was finished. And it is scarce credible 
what inexpressible labor -everything was done with, 
especially the bringing piles out of the woods, and 
driving them into the ground; for I made them much 
bigger than I need to have done. 

When this wall was finished, and the outside double- 
fenced with a turf -wall raised up close to it, I per- 
suaded myself that if any people were to come on 
shore there, they would not perceive anything like a 
habitation ; and it was very well I did so, as may be 
observed hereafter upon a very remarkable occasion. 

During this time, I made my rounds in the woods 
for game every day, when the rain admitted me, and 
made frequent discoveries in these walks of something 
or other to my advantage ; particularly I found a kind 
of wild pigeons, who built, not as wood pigeons in a 
tree, but rather as house pigeons, in the holes of the 
rocks. And taking some yoiing ones, I endeavored 
to breed them up tame, and did so ; but when they 
grew older they fiew all away, which, perhaps, was 
at first for want of feeding them, for I had nothing 
to give them. However, I frequently found their 
nests, and got their young ones, which were very 
good meat. 

And now in the managing my household affairs 
I found myself wanting in many things which I 
thought at first it was impossible for me to make, as 
indeed, as to some of them, it was. For instance, I 
could never make a cask to be hooped ; I had a small 
runlet or two, as I observed before, but I could never 
arrive to the capacity of making one by them, though 
I spent many weeks about it. I could neither put in 
the heads, or joint the staves so true to one another 


THE JOURNAL. 97 

as to make them hold water; so I gave that also 
over. 

In the next place, I was at a great loss for candle ; 
so that as soon as ever it was dark, which was gener- 
ally by seven o’clock, I was obliged to go to bed. I 
remembered the lump of beeswax with which I made 
candles in my African adventure, but I had none of 
that now. The only remedy I had was, that when I 
had killed a goat I saved the tallow, and with a little 
dish made of clay, which I baked in the sun, to which 
I added a wick of some oakum, I made me a lamp; 
and this gave me light, though not a clear steady 
light like a candle. 

In the middle of all my labors it happened that, 
rummaging my things, I found a little bag, which, 
as I hinted before, had been filled with corn for the 
feeding of poultry, not for this voyage, but before, 
as I suppose, when the ship came from Lisbon. 
What little remainder of corn had been in the bag 
was all devoured with the rats, and I saw nothing in 
the bag but husks and dust; and being willing to 
have the bag for some other use, I think it was to 
put powder in, when I divided it for fear of the light- 
ning, or some such use, I shook the husks of corn out 
of it on one side of my fortification, under the rock. 
It was a little before the great rains, just now men- 
tioned, that I threw this stuff away, taking no notice 
of anything, and not so much as remembering that I 
had thrown anything there; when, about a month 
after, or thereabout, I saw some few stalks of some- 
thing green shooting out of the ground, which I fan- 
cied might be some plant I had not seen ; but I was 
surprised, and perfectly astonished, when, after a 
little longer time, I saw about ten or twelve ears 


98 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


come out, which were perfect green barley of the 
same kind as our European, nay, as our English bar- 
ley. 

It is impossible to express the astonishment and 
confusion of my thoughts on this occasion. I had 
hitherto acted upon no religious foundation at all; 
indeed, I had very few notions of religion in my 
head, or had entertained any sense of anything that 
had befallen me otherwise than as a chance, or, as 
we lightly say, what pleases God; without so much 
as inquiring into the end of Providence in these 
things, or His order in governing events in the world. 
But after I saw barley grow there, in a climate which 
I knew was not proper for corn, and especially that 
I knew not how it came there, it startled me strangely, 
and I began to suggest that God had miraculously 
caused this grain to grow without any help of seed 
sown, and that it was so directed purely for my sus- 
tenance on that wild, miserable place. 

This touched my heart a little, and brought tears 
out of my eyes; and I began to bless myself that 
such a prodigy of Nature should happen upon my 
account; and this was the more strange to me, be- 
cause I saw near it still, all along by the side of the 
rock, some other straggling stalks, which proved to 
be stalks of ricej and which I knew, because I had 
seen it grow in Africa, when I was ashore there. 

I not only thought these the pure productions of 
Providence for my support, but, not doubting but 
that there was more in the place, I went all over that 
part of the island where I had been before, peering 
in every corner, and under every rock, to see for more 
of it; but I could not find any. At last it occurred 
to my thoughts that I had shook a bag of chicken’s 


THE JOURNAL. 


99 


meat out in that place, and then the wonder began to 
cease; and I must confess, my religious thankfulness 
to God’s providence began to abate too, upon the dis- 
covering that all this was nothing but what was com- 
mon; though I ought to have been as thankful for so 
strange and unforeseen providence as if it had been 
miraculous ; for it was really the work of Providence 
as to me, that should order or appoint that ten or 
twelve grains of corn should remain unspoiled (when 
the rats had destroyed all the rest), as if it had been 
dropped from heaven; as also that I should throw it 
out in that particular place, where, it being in the 
shade of a high rock, it sprang up immediately;^ 
whereas, if I had thrown it anywhere else at that 
time, it had been burnt up and destroyed. 

I carefully saved the ears of this corn, you may be 
sure, in their season, which was about the end of 
June; and laying up every corn, I resolved to sow 
them all again, hoping in time to have some quantity 
sufficient to supply me with bread. But it was not 
till the fourth year that I could allow myself the least 
grain of this corn to eat, and even then but sparingly, 
as I shall say afterwards in its order; for I lost all 
that I sowed the first season by not observing the 
proper time; for I sowed it just before the dry sea- 
son, so that it never came up at all, at least not as it 
would have done; of which in its place. 

Besides this barley, there was, as above, twenty or 
thirty stalks of rice, which I preserved with the same 
care, and whose use was of the same kind, or to the 
same purpose, viz., to make me bread, or rather 
food; for I found ways to cook it up without baking, 
though I did that also after some time. But to return 
to my journal. 


100 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


I worked excessive hard these three or four months 
to get my wall done ; and the 14th of April I closed 
it up, contriving to go into it, not by a door, but over 
the wall by a ladder, that there might be no sign in 
the outside of my habitation. 

April 16. — I finished the ladder, so I went up 
with the ladder to the top, and then pulled it up after 
me, and let it down on the inside. This was a com- 
plete enclosure to me ; for within I had room enough, 
and nothing could come at me from without, unless it 
could first mount my wall. 

The very next day after this wall was finished, I 
had almost had all my labor overthrown at once, and 
myself killed. The case was thus : As I was busy in 
the inside of it, behind my tent, just in the entrance 
into my cave, I was terribly frighted with a most 
dreadful surprising thing indeed ; for all on a sudden 
I found the earth come crumbling down from the 
roof of my cave, and from the edge of the hill over 
my head, and two of the posts I had set up in the 
cave cracked in a frightful manner. I was heartily 
scared, but thought nothing of what was really the 
cause, only thinking that the top of my cave was fall- 
ing in, as some of it had done before; and for fear I 
should be buried in it, I ran forward to my ladder ; 
and not thinking myself safe there neither, I got over 
my wall for fear of the pieces of the hill which I ex- 
pected might roll down upon me. I was no sooner 
stepped down upon the firm ground but I plainly 
saw it was a terrible earthquake ; for the ground I 
stood on shook three times at about eight minutes’ 
distance, with three .‘r ^eh shocks as would have over- 
turned the strongest building that could be supposed 
to have stood on the earth; and a great piece of the 


THE JOURNAL. 


101 


top of a rock, which stood about half a mile from me 
next the sea, fell down with such a terrible noise as 
I never heard in all my life. I perceived also the 
very sea was put into violent motion by it; and I 
believe the shocks were stronger under the water than 
on the island. 

I was so amazed with the thing itself, having never 
felt the like, or discoursed with any one that had, 
that I was like one dead or stupefied; and the motion 
of the earth made my stomach sick, like one that was 
tossed at sea. But the noise of the falling of the 
rock awaked me, as it were, and rousing me from the 
stupefied condition I was in, filled me with horror, 
and I thought of nothing then but the hill falling 
upon my tent and all my household goods, and bury- 
ing all at once ; and this sunk my very soul within 
me a second time. 

After the third shock was over, and I felt no more 
for some time, I began to take courage; and yet I 
had not heart enough to go over my wall again, for 
fear of being buried alive, but sat still upon the 
ground, greatly cast down and disconsolate, not know- 
ing what to do. All this while I had not the least 
serious religious thought, nothing but the common, 
‘‘Lord, have mercy upon me!” and when it was 
over, that went away too. 

While I sat thus, I found the air overcast, and 
grow cloudy, as if it would rain. Soon after that the 
wind rose by little and little, so that in less than half 
an hour it blew a most dreadful hurricane. The sea 
was all on a sudden covered over with foam and 
froth ; the shore was covered v ’ 'h the breach of the 
water; the trees were torn up by the roots; and a 
terrible storm it was: and this held about three 


102 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


hours, and then began to abate; and in two hours 
more it was stark calm, and began to rain very hard. 

All this while I sat upon the ground, very much 
terrified and dejected; when on a sudden it came into 
my thoughts that, these winds and rain being the 
consequences of the earthquake, the earthquake itself 
was spent and over, and I might venture into my 
cave again. With this thought my spirits began to 
revive ; and the rain also helping to persuade me, I 
went in and sat down in my tent. But the rain was 
so violent that my tent was ready to be beaten down 
with it, and I was forced to go into my cave, though 
very much afraid and uneasy, for fear it should fall 
on my head. 

This violent rain forced me to a new work, viz., to 
cut a hole through my new fortification, like a sink, 
to let the water go out, which would else have 
drowned my cave. After I had been in my cave 
some time, and found still no more shocks of the 
earthquake follow, I began to be more composed. 
And now to support my spirits, which indeed wanted 
it very much, I went to my little store, and took a 
small sup of rum, which, however, I did then, and 
always, very sparingly, knowing I could have no more 
when that was gone. 

It continued raining all that night and great part 
of the next day, so that I could not stir abroad; but 
my mind being more composed, I began to think of 
what I had best do, concluding that if the island was 
subject to these earthquakes, there would be no living 
for me in a cave, but I must consider of building me 
some little hut in an open place, which I might sur- 
round with a wall, as I had done here, and so make 
myself secure from wild beasts or men; but con- 


THE JOURNAL. 103 

eluded, if I stayed where I was, I should certainly, 
one tune or other, be buried alive. 

With these thoughts I resolved to remove my tent 
from the place where it stood, which was just under 
the hanging precipice of the hill, and which, if it 
should be shaken again, would certainly fall upon 
my tent; and I spent the two next days, being the 
19th and 20th of April, in contriving where and how 
to remove my habitation. 

The fear of being swallowed up alive made me that 
I never slept in quiet ; and yet the apprehension of 
lying abroad without any fence was almost equal to 
it. But still, when I looked about and saw how 
everything was put in order, how pleasantly con- 
cealed I was, and how safe from danger, it made me 
very loath to remove. 

In the meantime it occurred to me that it would 
require a vast deal of time for me to do this, and that 
I must be contented to run the venture where I was, 
till I had formed a camp for myself, and had secured 
it so as to remove to it. So with this resolution I 
composed myself for a time, and resolved that I 
would go to work with all speed to build me a wall 
with piles and cables, etc., in a circle as before, and 
set my tent up in it when it was finished, but that I 
would venture to stay where I was till it was finished, 
and fit to remove to. This was the 21st. 

April 22. — The next morning I began to consider 
of means to put this resolve in execution ; but I was 
at a great loss about my tools. I had three large 
axes and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the 
hatchets for traffic with the Indians), but with much 
chopping and cutting knotty hard wood, they were 
all full of notches and dull; and though I had a 


104 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


grindstone, I could not turn it and grind my tools 
too. This cost me as much thought as a statesman 
would have bestowed upon a grand point of politics, 
or a judge upon the life and death of a man. At 
length I contrived a wheel with a string, to turn it 
with my foot, that I might have both my hands at 
liberty. Note : I had never seen any such thing in 
England, or at least not to take notice how it was 
done, though since I have observed it is very com- 
mon there; besides that, my grindstone was very 
large and heavy. This machine cost me a full week’s 
work to bring it to perfection. 

April 28, 29. — These two whole days I took up 
in grinding my tools, my machine for turning my 
grindstone performing very well. 

April 30. — Having perceived my bread had been 
low a great while, now I took a survey of it, and re- 
duced myself to one biscuit-cake a day, which made 
my heart very heavy. 

May 1. — In the morning, looking towards the 
seaside, the tide being low, I saw something lie on 
the shore bigger than ordinary, and it looked like a 
cask. When I came to it, I found a small barrel, 
and two or three pieces of the wreck of the ship, 
which were driven on shore by the late hurricane; 
and looking towards the wreck itself, I thought it 
seemed to lie higher out of the water than it used to 
do. I examined the barrel which was driven on 
shore, and soon found it was a barrel of gunpowder ; 
but it had taken water, and the powder was caked as 
hard as a stone. However, I rolled it farther on 
shore for the present, and went on upon the sands as 
near as I could to the wreck of the ship to look for 
more. 


THE JOURNAL. 


105 


When I came down to the ship I found it strangely 
removed. The forecastle, which lay before buried in 
sand, was heaved up at least six feet; and the stern, 
which was broken to pieces, and parted from the rest 
by the force of the sea soon after I had left rum- 
maging her, was tossed, as it were, up, and cast on 
one side, and the sand was thrown so high on that 
side next her stern that whereas there was a great 
place of water before, so that I could not come within 
a quarter of a mile of the wreck without swimming, I 
could now walk quite up to her when the tide was out. 
I was surprised with this at first, but soon concluded 
it must be done by the earthquake. And as by this 
violence the ship was more broken open than for- 
merly, so many things came daily on shore which the 
sea had loosened, and which the winds and water 
rolled by degrees to the land. 

This wholly diverted my thoughts from the design 
of removing my habitation; and I busied myself 
mightily, that day especially, in searching whether I 
could make any way into the ship. But I found 
nothing was to be expected of that kind, for that all 
the inside of the ship was choked up with sand. 
However, as I had learned not to despair of anything, 
I resolved to pull everything to pieces that I could of 
the ship, concluding that everything I could get from 
her would be of some use or other to me. 

May 3. — I began with my saw, and cut a piece of 
a beam through, which I thought held some of the 
upper part or quarter-deck together ; and when I had 
cut it through, I cleared away the sand as well as I 
could from the side which lay highest; but the tide 
coming in, I was obliged to give over for that time. 

May 4. — I went a-fishing, but caught not one fish 


106 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


that I durst eat of, till I was weary of my sport; 
when, just going to leave off, I caught a young dol- 
phin. I had made me a long line of some rope-yarn, 
but I had no hooks; yet I frequently caught fish 
enough, as much as I cared to eat; all which I dried 
in the sun, and eat them dry. 

May 5. — Worked on the wreck, cut another beam 
asunder, and brought three great fir planks off from 
the decks, which I tied together, and made swim on 
shore, when the tide of flood came on. 

May 6. — Worked on the wreck, got several iron 
bolts out of her, and other pieces of ironwork ; worked 
very hard, and came home very much tired, and had 
thoughts of giving it over. 

May 7. — Went to the wreck again, but with an 
intent not to work, but found the weight of the wreck 
had broke itself down, the beams being cut; that 
several pieces of the ship seemed to lie loose, and the 
inside of the hold lay so open that I could see into 
it, but almost full of water and sand. 

May 8. — Went to the wreck, and carried an iron 
crow to wrench up the deck, which lay now quite 
clear of the water or sand. I wrenched open two 
planks, and brought them on shore also with the tide. 
I left the iron crow in the wreck for next day. 

May 9. — Went to the wreck, and with the crow 
made way into the body of the wreck, and felt several 
casks, and loosened them with the crow, but could 
not break them up. I felt also the roll of English 
lead, and could stir it, but it was too heavy to re- 
move. 

May 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. — Went every day to the 
wreck, and got a great deal of pieces of timber, and 
boards, or plank, and two or three hundred-weight of 
iron. 


THE JOURNAL. 


107 


May 15. — I carried two hatchets to try if I could 
not cut a piece off of the roll of lead, by placing the 
edge of one hatchet, and driving it with the other; 
but as it lay about a foot and a half in the water, I 
could not make any blow to drive the hatchet. 

May 16. — It had bio wed hard in the night, and 
the wreck appeared more broken by the force of 
the water ; but I stayed so long in the woods to get 
pigeons for food, that the tide prevented me going 
to the wreck that day. 

May 17. — I saw some pieces of the wreck blown 
on shore, at a great distance, near two miles off me, 
but resolved to see what they were, and found it was 
a piece of the head, but too heavy for me to bring 
away. 

May 24. — Every day to this day I worked on the 
wreck, and with hard labor I loosened some things so 
much with the crow that the first blowing tide several 
casks floated out,' and two of the seamen’s chests. 
But the wind blowing from the shore, nothing came 
to land that day but pieces of timber, and a hogshead 
which had some Brazil pork in it, but the salt water 
and the sand had spoiled it. 

I continued this work every day to the 16th of 
June, except the time necessary to get food, which I. 
always appointed, during this part of my employ- 
ment, to be when the tide was up, that I might be 
ready when it was ebbed out. And by this time I 
had gotten timber, and plank, and ironwork enough 
to have builded a good boat, if I had known how; 
and, also, I got at several times, and in several pieces, 
near one hundred- weight of the sheet lead. 

June 16. — Going down to the seaside, I found a 
large tortoise or turtle. This was the first I had 


108 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


seen, which it seems was only my misfortune, not any 
defect of the place, or scarcity ; for had I happened 
to be on the other side of the island, I might have 
had hundreds of them every day, as I found after- 
wards ; but, perhaps, had paid dear enough for them. 

June 17 I spent in cooking the turtle. I found in 
her threescore eggs ; and her flesh was to me, at that 
time, the most sa vory and pleasant that ever I tasted 
in my life, having had no flesh, but of goats and 
fowls, since I landed in this horrid place. 

June 18. — Rained all day, and I stayed within. 
I thought at this time the rain felt cold, and I was 
something chilly, which I knew was not usual in that 
latitude. 

June 19. — Very ill and shivering, as if the wea- 
ther had been cold. 

June 20. — No rest all night; violent pains in my 
head, and feverish. 

June 21. -r- Very ill, frighted almost to death with 
the apprehensions of my sad condition, to be sick, 
and no help. Prayed to God for the first time since 
the storm off of Hull, but scarce knew what I said 
or why, my thoughts being all confused. 

June 22. — A little better, but under dreadful 
apprehensions of sickness. 

June 23. — Very bad again; cold and shivering, 
and then a violent headache. 

June 24. — Much better. 

June 25. — An ague very violent; the fit held me 
seven hours; cold fit, and hot, with faint sweats after 
it. 

June 26. — Better; and having no victuals to eat, 
took my gun, but found myself very weak. How- 
ever, I killed a she goat, and with much difficulty got 


THE JOURNAL. 


109 


it home, and broiled some of it, and eat. I would 
fain have stewed it, and made some broth, but had 
no pot. 

June 27. — The ague again so violent that I lay 
abed all day, and neither eat nor drank. I was ready 
to perish for thirst; but so weak I had not strength 
to stand up, or to get myself any water to drink. 
Prayed to God again, but was light-headed; and 
when I was not, I was so ignorant that I knew not 
what to say; only I lay and cried, “Lord, look upon 
me! Lord, pity me! Lord, have mercy upon me!” 
I suppose I did nothing else for two or three hours, 
till the fit wearing off, I fell asleep, and did not wake 
till far in the night. When I waked, I found myself 
much refreshed, but weak and exceeding thirsty. 
However, as I had no water in my whole habitation, 
I was forced to lie till morning, and went to sleep 
again. In this second sleep I had this terrible 
dream. 

I thought that I was sitting on the ground, on the 
outside of my wall, where I sat when the storm blew 
after the earthquake, and that I saw a man descend 
from a great black cloud, in a bright flame of fire, 
and light upon the ground. He was all over as 
bright as a flame, so that I could but just bear to 
look towards him. His countenance was most inex- 
pressibly dreadful, impossible for words to describe. 
When he stepped upon the ground with his feet, I 
thought the earth trembled, just as it had done be- 
fore in the earthquake, and all the air looked, to my 
apprehension, as if it had been filled with flashes of 
fire. 

He was no sooner landed upon the earth but he 
moved forward towards me, with a long spear or 


110 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


weapon in his hand, to kill me ; and when he came to 
a rising ground, at some distance, he spoke to me, or 
I heard a voice so terrible that it is impossible to 
express the terror of it. All that I can say I under- 
stood was this: “Seeing all these things have not 
brought thee to repentance, now thou shalt die;’’ at 
which words I thought he lifted up the spear that 
was in his hand to kill me. 

No one that shall ever read this account will ex- 
pect that I should be able to describe the horrors of 
my soul at this terrible vision; I mean, that even 
while it was a dream, I even dreamed of those hor- 
rors; nor is it any more possible to describe the im- 
pression that remained upon my mind when I awaked, 
and found it was but a dream. 

I had, alas! no divine knowledge; what I had 
received by the good instruction of my father was 
then worn out, by an uninterrupted series, for eight 
years, of seafaring wickedness, and a constant con- 
versation with nothing but such as were, like myself, 
wicked and profane to the last degree. I do not 
remember that I had, in all that time, one thought 
that so much as tended either to looking upwards 
towards God, or inwards towards a reflection upon 
my ways; but a certain stupidity of soul, without 
desire of good, or conscience of evil, had entirely 
overwhelmed me ; and I was all that the most hard- 
ened, unthinking, wicked creature among our com- 
mon sailors can be supposed to be; not having the 
least sense, either of the fear of God, in danger, or 
of thankfulness to God, in deliverance. 

In the relating what is already past of my story, 
this will be the more easily believed, when I shall 
add that, through all the variety of miseries that had 


THE JOURNAL. 


Ill 


to this day befallen me, I never had so much as one 
thought of it being the hand of God, or that it was 
a just punishment for my sin, my rebellious behavior 
against my father, or my present sins, which were 
great; or so much as a punishment for the general 
course of my wicked life. When I was on the des- 
perate expedition on the desert shores of Africa, I 
never had so much as one thought of what would 
become of me; or one wish to God to direct me 
whither I should go, or to keep me from the danger 
which apparently surrounded me, as well from vora- 
cious creatures as cruel savages. But I was merely 
thoughtless of a God or a Providence ; acted like a 
mere brute from the principles of Nature, and by the 
dictates of common sense only, and indeed hardly 
that. 

When I was delivered and taken up at sea by the 
Portugal captain, well used, and dealt justly and 
honorably with, as well as charitably, I had not the 
least thankfulness in my thoughts. When again I 
was shipwrecked, ruined, and in danger of drowning 
on this island, I was as far from remorse, or looking 
on it as a judgment ; I only said to myself often that 
I was an unfortunate dog, and born to be always 
miserable. 

It is true, when I got on shore first here, and 
found all my ship’s crew drowned, and myself spared, 
I was surprised with a kind of ecstasy, and some 
transports of soul, which, had the grace of God 
assisted, might have come up to true thankfulness; 
but it ended where it begun, in a mere common flight 
of joy, or, as I may say, being glad I was alive, with- 
out the least reflection upon the distinguishing good- 
ness of the hand which had preserved me, and had 


112 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


singled me out to be preserved, when all the rest 
were destroyed; or an inquiry why Providence had 
been thus merciful to me; even just the same com- 
mon sort of joy which seamen generally have after 
they are got safe ashore from a shipwreck, which 
they drown all in the next bowl of punch, and forget 
almost as soon as it is over; and all the rest of my 
life was like it. 

Even when I was afterwards, on due consideration, 
made sensible of my condition, how I was cast on this 
dreadful place, out of the reach of humankind, out 
of all hope of relief, or prospect of redemption, as 
soon as I saw but a prospect of living, and that I 
should not stauve and perish for hunger, all the sense 
of my affliction wore off, and I began to be very easy, 
applied myself to the works proper for my preserva- 
tion and supply, and was far enough from being 
afflicted at my condition, as a judgment from Heaven, 
or as the hand of God against me ; these were 
thoughts which very seldom entered into my head. 

The growing up of the corn, as is hinted in my 
journal, had at first some little influence upon me, 
and began to affect me with seriousness as long as I 
thought it had something miraculous in it; but as 
soon as ever that part of the thought was removed, 
all the impression which was raised from it wore off 
also, as I have noted already. 

Even the earthquake, though nothing could be 
more terrible in its nature, or more immediately 
directing to the invisible Power, which alone directs 
such things, yet no sooner was the first fright over 
but the impression it had made went off also. I had 
no more sense of God or His judgments, much less 
of the present affliction of my circumstances being 


THE JOURNAL. 113 

from His hand, than if I had been in the most pros- 
perous condition of life. 

But now, when I began to be sick, and a leisurely 
view of the miseries of death came to place itself 
before me ; when my spirits began to sink under the 
burthen of a strong distemper, and Nature was ex- 
hausted with the violence of the fever; conscience, 
that had slept so long, began to awake, and I began 
to reproach myself with my past life, in which I 
had so evidently, by uncommon wickedness, provoked 
the justice of God to lay me under uncommon strokes, 
and to deal with me in so vindictive a manner. 

These reflections oppressed me for the second or 
third day of my distemper; and in the violence, as 
well of the fever as of the dreadful reproaches of my 
conscience, extorted some words from me, like pray- 
ing to God, though I cannot say they were either a 
prayer attended with desires or with hopes; it was 
rather the voice of mere fright and distress. My 
thoughts were confused, the convictions great upon 
my mind, and the horror of dying in such a miserable 
condition raised vapors into my head with the mere 
apprehensions; and in these hurries of my soul, I 
know not what my tongue might express ; but it was 
rather exclamation, such as, “Lord! what a miser- 
able creature am I! If I should be sick, I shall 
certainly die for want of help ; and what will become 
of me?’’ Then the tears burst out of my eyes, and 
I could say no more for a good while. 

In this interval, the good advice of my father came 
to my mind, and presently his prediction, which I 
mentioned at the beginning of this story, viz., that 
if I did take this foolish step, God would not bless 
me, and I would have leisure hereafter to reflect upon 


114 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


having neglected his counsel, when there might be 
none to assist in my recovery. “Now,” said I aloud, 
“my dear father’s words are come to pass; God’s 
justice has overtaken me, and I have none to help or 
hear me. I rejected the voice of Providence, which 
had mercifully put me in a posture or station of life 
wherein I might have been happy and easy; but I 
would neither see it myself, nor learn to know the 
blessing of it from my parents. I left them to mourn 
over my folly, and now I am left to mourn under the 
consequences of it. I refused their help and assist- 
ance who would have lifted me into the world, and 
would have made everything easy to me ; and now I 
have difficulties to struggle with too great for even 
Nature itself to support, and no assistance, no help, 
no comfort, no advice.” Then I cried out, “Lord, 
be my help, for I am in great distress.” 

This was the first prayer, if I may call it so, that 
I had made for many years. But I return to my 
journal. 

June 28. — Having been somewhat refreshed with 
the sleep I had had, and the fit being entirely off, I 
got up ; and though the fright and terror of my dream 
was very great, yet I considered that the fit of the 
ague would return again the next day, and now was 
my time to get something to refresh and support 
myself when I should be ill. And the first thing I 
did I filled a large square case-bottle with water, and 
set it upon my table, in reach of my bed; and to 
take off the chill or aguish disposition of the water, 
I put about a quarter of a pint of rum into it, and 
mixed them together. Then I got me a piece of the 
goat’s flesh, and broiled it on the coals, but could eat 
very little. I walked about, but was very weak, and 


THE JOURNAL, 


115 


withal very sad and heavy-hearted in the sense of my 
miserable condition, dreading the return of my dis- 
temper the next day. At night I made my supper 
of three of the turtle’s eggs, which I roasted in the 
ashes, and eat, as we call it, in the shell; and this 
was the first bit of meat I had ever asked God’s bless- 
ing to, even as I could remember, in my whole life. 

After I had eaten, I tried to walk, but found my- 
self so weak that I could hardly carry the gun (for 
I never went out without that) ; so I went but a little 
way, and sat down upon the ground, looking out upon 
the sea, which was just before me, and very calm and 
smooth. As I sat here, some such thoughts as these 
occurred to me. 

What is this earth and sea, of which I have seen 
so much? whence is it produced? And what am I, 
and all the other creatures, wild and tame, human 
and brutal; whence are we? Sure we are all made 
by some secret Power, who formed the earth and sea, 
the air and sky. And who is that ? 

Then it followed most naturally. It is God that has 
made it all. Well, but then it came on strangely, 
if God has made all these things He guides and gov- 
erns them all, and all things that concern them ; for 
the Power that could make all things, must certainly 
have power to guide and direct them. 

If so, nothing can happen in the great circuit of His 
works, either without His knowledge or appointment. 
And if nothing happens without His knowledge. He 
knows that I am here, and am in this dreadful condi- 
tion. And if nothing happens without His appoint- 
ment, He has appointed all this to befall me. 

Nothing occurred to my thoughts to contradict any 
of these conclusions; and therefore it rested upon me 


116 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


with the greater force that it must needs be that God 
had appointed all this to befall me ; that I was brought 
to this miserable circumstance by His direction, He 
having the sole power, not of me only, but of every- 
thing that happened in the world. Immediately it 
followed. Why has God done this to me? What 
have I done to be thus used? 

My conscience presently checked me in that in- 
quiry, as if I had blasphemed, and methought it 
spoke to me like a voice: ‘‘Wretch! dost thou ask 
what thou hast done? Look back upon a dreadful 
misspent life, and ask thyself what thou hast not 
done. Ask why is it that thou wert not long ago 
destroyed? Why wert thou not drowned in Yar- 
mouth Roads ; killed in the fight when the ship was 
taken by the Sallee man-of-war; devoured by the 
wild beasts on the coast of Africa; or drowned here, 
when all the crew perished but thyself ? Dost thou 
ask. What have I done?’’ 

I was struck dumb with these reflections, as one 
astonished, and had not a word to say, no, not to 
answer to myself, but rose up pensive and sad, walked 
back to my retreat, and went up over my wall, as if 
I had been going to bed. But my thoughts were 
sadly disturbed, and I had no inclination to sleep; 
so I sat down in my chair, and lighted my lamp, for 
it began to be dark. Now, as the apprehension of 
the return of my distemper terrified me very much, 
it occurred to my thought that the Brazilians take no 
physic but their tobacco for almost all distempers; 
and I had a piece of a roll of tobacco in one of the 
chests, which was quite cured, and some also that 
was green, and not quite cured. 

I went, directed by Heaven, no doubt; for in this 


THE JOURNAL, 


117 


chest I found a cure both for soul and body. I 
opened the chest, and found what I looked for, viz. , 
the tobacco ; and as the few books I had saved lay 
there too, I took out one of the Bibles which I men- 
tioned before, and which to this time I had not found 
leisure, or so much as inclination, to look into. I 
say, I took it out, and brought both that and the 
tobacco with me to the table. 

What use to make of the tobacco I knew not, as to 
my distemper, or whether it was good for it or no; 
but I tried several experiments with it, as if I was 
resolved it should hit one way or other. I first took 
a piece of a leaf, and chewed it in my mouth, which 
indeed at first almost stupefied my brain, the tobacco 
being green and strong, and that I had not been 
much used to it. Then I took some and steeped it 
an hour or two in some rum, and resolved to take a 
dose of it when I lay down. And lastly, I burnt some 
upon a pan of coals, and held my nose close over the 
smoke of it as long as I could bear it, as well for the 
heat, as almost for suffocation. 

In the interval of this operation, I took up the 
Bible, and began to read, but my head was too much 
disturbed with the tobacco to bear reading, at least 
that time ; only having opened the book casually, the 
first words that occurred to me were these : ‘‘ Call on 
Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and 
thou shalt glorify Me.” 

The words were very apt to my case, and made 
some impression upon my thoughts at the time of 
reading them, though not so much as they did after- 
wards; for as for being delivered, the word had no 
sound, as I may say, to me, the thing was so remote, 
so impossible in my apprehension of things, that I 


118 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


began to say, as the children of Israel did when they 
were promised flesh to eat, ‘‘ Can God spread a table 
in the wilderness?” so I began to say, Can God 
Himself deliver me from this place? And as it was 
not for many years that any hope appeared, this pre- 
vailed very often upon my thoughts. But, however, 
the words made a great impression upon me, and I 
mused upon them very often. 

It grew now late, and the tobacco had, as I said, 
dozed my head so much that I inclined to sleep ; so 
I left my lamp burning in the cave, lest I should 
want anything in the night, and went to bed. But 
before I lay down, I did what I never had done in 
all my life; I kneeled down, and prayed to God to 
fulfil the promise to me, that if I called upon Him in 
the day of trouble. He would deliver me. After my 
broken and imperfect prayer was over, I drank the 
rum in which I had steeped the tobacco ; which was 
so strong and rank of the tobacco that indeed I could 
scarce get it down. Immediately upon this I went 
to bed. I found presently it flew up in my head 
violently; but I fell into a sound sleep, and waked 
no more till, by the sun, it must necessarily be near 
three o’clock in the afternoon the next day. Nay, 
to this hour I am partly of the opinion that I slept 
all the next day and night, and till almost three that 
day after; for otherwise I knew not how I should 
lose a day out of my reckoning in the days of the 
week, as it appeared some years after I had done. 
For if I had lost it by crossing and recrossing the 
line, I should have lost more than one day. But 
certainly I lost a day in my account, and never knew 
which way. 

Be that, however, one way or the other, when I 


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119 


awaked I found myself exceedingly refreshed, and 
my spirits lively and cheerful. When I got up, I 
was stronger than I was the day before, and my 
stomach better, for I was hungry; and, in short, I 
had no fit the next day, but continued much altered 
for the better. This was the 29th. 

The 30th was my well day, of course, and I went 
abroad with my gun, but did not care to travel too 
far. I killed a sea-fowl or two, something like a 
brand-goose, and brought them home, but was not 
very forward to eat them ; so I eat some more of the 
turtle’s eggs, which were very good. This evening I 
renewed the medicine, which I had supposed did me 
good the day before, viz., the tobacco steeped in rum; 
only I did not take so much as before, nor did I chew 
any of the leaf, or hold my head over the smoke. 
However, I was not so well the next day, which was 
the 1st of July, as I hoped I should have been; for 
I had a little spice of the cold fit, but it was not 
much. 

July 2. — I renewed the medicine all the three 
ways ; and dosed myself with it as at first, and dou- 
bled the quantity which I drank. 

July 3. — I missed the fit for good and all, though 
I did not recover my full strength for some weeks 
after. While I was thus gathering strength, my 
thoughts ran exceedingly upon this Scripture, ‘‘I will 
deliver thee;” and the impossibility of my deliver- 
ance lay much upon my mind, in bar of my ever ex- 
pecting it. But as I was discouraging myself with 
such thoughts, it occurred to my mind that I pored 
so much upon my deliverance from the main afflic- 
tion, that I disregarded the deliverance I had re- 
ceived; and I was, as it were, made to ask myself 


120 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


such questions as these, viz., Have I not been deliv- 
ered, and wonderfully too, from sickness? from the 
most distressed condition that could be, and that was 
so frightful to me ? and what notice I had taken of 
it ? Had I done my part ? God had delivered me, 
but I had not glorified Him ; that is to say, I had not 
owned and been thankful for that as a deliverance ; 
and how could I expect greater deliverance ? 

This touched my heart very much; and immedi- 
ately I kneeled down, and gave God thanks aloud for 
my recovery from my sickness. 

July 4. —In the morning I took the Bible; and 
beginning at the New Testament, I began seriously 
to read it, and imposed upon myself to read awhile 
every morning and every night, not tying myself to 
the number of chapters, but as long as my thoughts 
should engage me. It was not long after I set seri- 
ously to this work but I found my heart more deeply 
and sincerely affected with the wickedness of my past 
life. The impression of my dream revived, and the 
words, ‘‘All these things have not brought thee to 
repentance,” ran seriously in my thought. I was 
earnestly begging of God to give me repentance, 
when it happened providentially, the very day, that, 
reading the Scripture, I came to these words, “He is 
exalted a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance, 
and to give remission.” I threw down the book; and 
with my heart as well as my hands lifted up to heaven, 
in a kind of ecstasy of joy, I cried out aloud, “Jesus, 
Thou son of David! Jesus, Thou exalted Prince and 
Saviour, give me repentance ! ” 

This was the first time that I could say, in the true 
sense of the words, that I prayed in all my life; for 
now I prayed with a sense of my condition, and with 


THE JOURNAL. 


121 


a true Scripture view of hope founded on the encour- 
agement of the W ord of God ; and from this time, I 
may say, I began to have hope that God would hear 
me. 

Now I began to construe the words mentioned 
above, “Call on Me, and I will deliver you,” in a 
different sense from what I had ever done before; 
for then I had no notion of anything being called 
deliverance but my being delivered from the captivity 
I was in; for though I was indeed at large in the 
place, yet the island was certainly a prison to me, 
and that in the worst sense in the world. But now 
I learned to take it in another sense; now I looked 
hack upon my past life with such horror, and my 
sins appeared so dreadful, that my soul sought no- 
thing of God but deliverance from the load of guilt 
that bore down all my comfort. As for my solitary 
life, it was nothing ; I did not so much as pray to be 
delivered from it, or think of it ; it was all of no con- 
sideration, in comparison to this. And I add this part 
here, to hint to whoever shall read it, that whenever 
they come to a true sense of things, they will find 
• deliverance from sin a much greater blessing than 
deliverance from affliction. 

But leaving this part, I return to my journal. 

My condition began now to be, though not less mis- 
erable as to my way of living, yet much easier to my 
mind ; and my thoughts being directed, by a constant 
reading the Scripture and praying to God, to things 
of a higher nature, I had a great deal of comfort 
within, which till now I knew nothing of. Also, as 
my health and strength returned, I bestirred myself 
to furnish myself with everything that I wanted, and 
make my way of living as regular as I could. 


122 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


From tlie 4th of July to the 14th, I was chiefly 
employed in walking about with my gun in my hand, 
a little and a little at a time, as a man that was gath- 
ering up his strength after a fit of sickness ; for it is 
hardly to be imagined how low I was, and to what 
weakness I was reduced. The application which I 
made use of was perfectly new, and perhaps what had 
never cured an ague before; neither can I recommend 
it to any one to practise, by this experiment; and 
though it did carry off the fit, yet it rather contributed 
to weakening me ; for I had frequent convulsions in 
my nerves and limbs for some time. 

I learnt from it also this, in particular, that being 
abroad in the rainy season was the most pernicious 
thing to my health that could be, especially in those 
rains which came attended with storms and hurri- 
canes of wind; for as the rain which came in the 
dry season was always most accompanied with such 
storms, so I found that rain was much more danger- 
ous than the rain which fell in September and Octo- 
ber. 

I had been now in this unhappy island above ten 
months ; all possibility of deliverance from this con- 
dition seemed to be entirely taken from me; and I 
firmly believed that no human shape had ever set 
foot upon that place. Having now secured my habi- 
tation, as I thought, fully to my mind, I had a great 
desire to make a more perfect discovery of the island, 
and to see what other productions I might find, 
which I yet knew nothing of. 

It was the 15th of July that I began to take a more 
particular survey of the island itself. I went up the 
creek first, where, as I hinted, I brought my rafts on 
shore. I found, after I came about two miles up. 


THE JOURNAL. 


123 


that the tide did not flow any higher, and that it was 
no more than a little brook of running water, and 
very fresh and good ; but this being the dry season, 
there was hardly any water in some parts of it, at 
least, not enough to run in any stream, so as it could 
be perceived. 

On the bank of this brook I found many pleas- 
ant savannas or meadows, plain, smooth, and covered 
with grass ; and on the rising parts of them, next to 
the higher grounds, where the water, as might be 
supposed, never overflowed, I found a great deal of 
tobacco, green, and growing to a great and very 
strong stalk. There were divers other plants, which 
I had no notion of, or understanding about, and 
might perhaps have virtues of their own, which I 
could not find out. 

I searched for the cassava root, which the Indians, 
in all that climate, make their bread of, but I could 
find none. I saw large plants of aloes, but did not 
then understand them. I saw several sugar-canes, 
but wild, and, for want of cultivation, imperfect. I 
contented myself with these discoveries for this time, 
and came back, musing with myself what course I 
might take to know the virtue and goodness of any 
of the fruits or plants which I should discover ; but 
could bring it to no conclusion ; for, in short, I had 
made so little observation while I was in the Brazils, 
that I knew little of the plants in the field, at least 
very little that might serve me to any purpose now in 
my distress. 

The next day, the 16th, I went up the same way 
again ; and after going something farther than I had 
gone the day before, I found the brook and the savan- 
nas began to cease, and the country became more 


124 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


woody than before. In this part I found different 
fruits, and particularly I found melons upon the 
ground in great abundance, and grapes upon the 
trees. The vines had spread indeed over the trees, 
and the clusters of grapes were just now in their 
prime, very ripe and rich. This was a surprising 
discovery, and I was exceeding glad of them; but I 
was warned by my experience to eat sparingly of 
them, remembering that when I was ashore in Bar- 
bary the eating of grapes killed several of our Eng- 
lishmen, who were slaves there, by throwing them 
into fluxes and fevers. But I found an excellent use 
for these grapes ; and that was, to cure or dry them 
in the sun, and keep them as dried grapes or raisins 
are kept, which I thought would be, as indeed they 
were, as wholesome as agreeable to eat, when no 
grapes might be to be had. 

I spent all that evening there, and went not back 
to my habitation; which, by the way, was the first 
night, as I might say, I had lain from home. In the 
night, I took my first contrivance, and got up into a 
tree, where I slept well; and the next morning pro- 
ceeded upon my discovery, travelling near four miles, 
as I might judge by the length of the valley, keeping 
still due north, with a ridge of hills on the south and 
north side of me. 

At the end of this march I came to an opening, 
where the country seemed to descend to the west; 
and a little spring of fresh water, which issued out of 
the side of the hill by me, ran the other way, that is, 
due east; and the country appeared so fresh, so 
green, so flourishing, everything being in a constant 
verdure or flourish of spring, that it looked like a 
planted garden. 


THE JOURNAL. 


125 


I descended a little on the side of that delicious 
vale, surveying it with a secret kind of pleasure, 
though mixed with my other afflicting thoughts, to 
think that this was all my own; that I was king and 
lord of all this country indefeasibly, and had a right 
of possession ; and, if I could convey it, I might have 
it in inheritance as completely as any lord of a manor 
in England. I saw here abundance of cocoa-trees, 
orange, and lemon, and citron trees; but all wild, 
and very few bearing any fruit, at least not then. 
However, the green limes that I gathered were not 
only pleasant to eat, but very wholesome; and I 
mixed their juice afterwards with water, which made 
it very wholesome, and very cool and refreshing. 

I found now I had business enough to gather and 
carry home ; and I resolved to lay up a store, as well 
of grapes as limes and lemons to furnish myself for 
the wet season, which I knew was approaching. 

In order to this, I gathered a great heap of grapes 
in one place, and a lesser heap in another place, and 
a great parcel of limes and lemons in another place ; 
and, taking a few of each with me, I travelled home- 
ward; and resolved to come again, and bring a bag 
or sack, or what I could make, to carry the rest 
home. 

Accordingly, having spent three days in this jour- 
ney, I came home (so I must now eall my tent and 
my eave); but before I got thither, the grapes were 
spoiled ; the richness of the fruits, and the weight of 
the juice, having broken them and bruised them, 
they were good for little or nothing : as to the limes, 
they were good, but I could bring but a few. 

The next day, being the 19th, I went back, having 
made me two small bags to bring home my harvest; 


126 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


but I was surprised, when, coming to my heap of 
grapes, which were so rich and fine when I gathered 
them, I found them all spread about, trod to pieces, 
and dragged about, some here, some there, and abun- 
dance eaten and devoured. By this I concluded there 
were some wild creatures thereabouts, which had 
done this ; but what they were, I knew not. 

However, as I found that there was no laying them 
up on heaps, and no carrying them away in a sack, 
but that one way they would be destroyed, and the 
other way they would be crushed with their own 
weight, I took another course ; for I gathered a large 
quantity of the grapes, and hung them up upon the 
out-branches of the trees, that they might cure and 
dry in the sun; and as for the limes and lemons, I 
carried as many back as I could well stand under. 

When I came home from this journey, I contem- 
plated with great pleasure the fruitfulness of that 
valley, and the pleasantness of the situation; the 
security from storms on that side the water and the 
wood ; and concluded that I had pitched upon a place 
to fix my abode which was by far the worst part of 
the country. Upon the whole, I began to consider 
of removing my habitation, and to look out for a 
place equally safe as where I now was situate, if pos- 
sible, in that pleasant, fruitful part of the island. 

This thought ran long in my head, and I was ex- 
ceeding fond of it for some time, the pleasantness of 
the place tempting me ; but when I came to a nearer 
view of it, and to consider that I was now by the 
seaside, where it was at least possible that something 
might happen to my advantage, and, by the same ill 
fate that brought me hither, might bring some other 
unhappy wretches to the same place ; and though it 


THE JOURNAL. 


127 


was scarce probable that any such thing should ever 
happen, yet to enclose myself among the hills and 
woods in the centre of the island was to anticipate 
my bondage, and to render such an affair not only 
improbable, but impossible; and that therefore I 
ought not by any means to remove. 

However, I was so enamoured of this place that I 
spent much of my time there for the whole remaining 
part of the month of July; and though, upon second 
thoughts, I resolved, as above, not to remove, yet I 
built me a little kind of a bower, and surrounded it 
at a distance with a strong fence, being a double 
hedge as high as I could reach, well staked, and filled 
between with brushwood. And here I lay very secure, 
sometimes two or three nights together, always going 
over it with a ladder, as before; so that I fancied 
now I had my country house and my sea-coast house ; 
and this work took me up to the beginning of August. 

I had but newly finished my fence, and began to 
enjoy my labor, but the rains came on, and made me 
stick close to my first habitation; for though I had 
made me a tent like the other, with a piece of a sail, 
and spread it very well, yet I had not the shelter of 
a hill to keep me from storms, nor a cave behind me 
to retreat into when the rains were extraordinary. 

About the beginning of August, as I said, I had 
finished my bower, and began to enjoy myself. The 
3d of August, I found the grapes I had hung up 
were perfectly dried, and indeed were excellent good 
raisins of the sun; so I began to take them down 
from the trees. And it was very happy that I did 
so, for the rains which followed would have spoiled 
them, and I had lost the best part of my winter food; 
for I had above two hundred large bunches of them. 


128 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


No sooner had I taken them all down, and carried 
most of them home to my cave, but it began to rain; 
and from hence, which was the 14th of August, it 
rained, more or less, every day till the middle of 
October, and sometimes so violently that I could not 
stir out of my cave for several days. 

In this season, I was much surprised with the in- 
crease of my family. I had been concerned for the 
loss of one of my cats, who run away from me, or, as 
I thought, had been dead, and I heard no more tale 
or tidings of her till, to my astonishment, she came 
home about the end of August with three kittens. 
This was the more strange to me, because, though I 
had killed a wild-cat, as I called it, with my gun, 
yet I thought it was a quite different kind from our 
European cats; yet the young cats were the same 
kind of house-breed like the old one; and both my 
cats being females, I thought it very strange. But 
from these three cats I afterwards came to be so pes- 
tered with cats that I was forced to kill them like 
vermin, or wild beasts, and to drive them from my 
house as much as possible. 

From the 14th of August to the 26th, incessant 
rain, so that I could not stir, and was now very care- 
ful not to be much wet. In this confinement, I be- 
gan to be straitened for food; but venturing out 
twice, I one day killed a goat, and the last day, 
which was the 26th, found a very large tortoise, 
which was a treat to me, and my food was regulated 
thus : I eat a bunch of raisins for my breakfast ; a 
piece of the goat’s flesh, or of the turtle, for my din- 
ner, broiled, — for, to my great misfortune, I had no 
vessel to boil or stew anything; and two or three of 
the turtle’s eggs for my supper. 


THE JOURNAL, 


129 


During this confinement in my cover by the rain, 
I worked daily two or three hours at enlarging my 
cave, and by degrees worked it on towards one side, 
till I came to the outside of the hill, and made a 
door, or way out, which came beyond my fence or 
wall; and so I came in and out this way. But I was 
not perfectly easy at lying so open; for as I had 
managed myself before, I was in a perfect enclosure ; 
whereas now, I thought I lay exposed, and open for 
anything to come in upon me ; and yet I could not 
perceive that there was any living thing to fear, the 
biggest creature that I had yet seen upon the island 
being a goat. 

Sept, 30. — I was now come to the unhappy anni- 
versary of my landing. I cast up the notches on my 
post, and found I had been on shore three hundred 
and sixty-five days. I kept this day as a solemn 
fast, setting it apart to religious exercise, prostrating 
myself on the ground with the most serious humilia- 
tion, confessing my sins to God, acknowledging His 
righteous judgments upon me, and praying to Him 
to have mercy on me through Jesus Christ; and hav- 
ing not tasted the least refreshment for twelve hours, 
even till the going down of the sun, I then eat a bis- 
cuit-cake and a bunch of grapes, and went to bed, 
finishing the day as I began it. 

I had all this time observed no Sabbath day, for 
as at first I had no sense of religion upon my mind, 
I had, after some time, omitted to distinguish the 
weeks by making a longer notch than ordinary for 
the Sabbath day, and so did not really know what 
any of the days were. But now, having cast up the 
days, as above, I found I had been there a year, so 
I divided it into weeks, and set apart every seventh 


130 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


day for a Sabbath ; though I found at the end of my 
account, I had lost a day or two in my reckoning. 

A little after this my ink began to fail me, and so 
I contented myself to use it more sparingly, and to 
write down only the most remarkable events of my 
life, without continuing a daily memorandum of other 
things. 

The rainy season and the dry season began now to 
appear regular to me, and I learned to divide them 
so as to provide for them accordingly ; but I bought 
all my experience before I had it, and this I am 
going to relate was one of the most discouraging 
experiments that I made at all. I have mentioned 
that I had saved the few ears of barley and rice, 
which I had so surprisingly found spring up, as I 
thought, of themselves, and believe there were about 
thirty stalks of rice, and about twenty of barley ; and 
now I thought it a proper time to sow it after the 
rains, the sun being in its southern position, going 
from me. 

Accordingly I dug up a piece of ground as well as 
I could with my wooden spade, and dividing it into 
two parts, I sowed my grain ; but as I was sowing, 
it casually occurred to my thoughts that I would not 
sow it all at first, because I did not know when was 
the proper time for it, so I sowed about two thirds 
of the seed, leaving about a handful of each. 

It was a great comfort to me afterwards that I did 
so, for not one grain of that I sowed this time came 
to anything, for the dry months following, the earth 
having had no rain after the seed was sown, it had 
no moisture to assist its growth, and never came up 
at all till the wet season Ijad come again, and then it 
grew as if it had been but newly sown. 


THE JOURNAL. 


131 


Finding my first seed did not grow, which I easily 
imagined was by the drought, I sought for a moister 
piece of ground to make another trial in, and I dug up 
a piece of ground near my new bower, and sowed the 
rest of my seed in February, a little before the vernal 
equinox. And this having the rainy months of March 
and April to water it, sprung up very pleasantly, and 
yielded a very good crop ; but having part of the seed 
left only, and not daring to sow all that I had, I had 
but a small quantity at last, my whole crop not 
amounting to above haK a peck of each kind. But 
by this experiment I was made master of my busi- 
ness, and knew exactly when the proper season was 
to sow, and that I might expect two seed-times and 
two harvests every year. 

While this corn was growing, I made a little dis- 
covery which was of use to me afterwards. As soon 
as the rains were over, and the weather began to 
settle, which was about the month of November, I 
made a visit up the country to my bower, where, 
though I had not been some months, yet I found, all 
things just as I left them. The circle or double 
hedge that I had made was not only firm and entire, 
but the stakes which I had cut out of some trees that 
grew thereabouts were all shot out, and grown with 
long branches, as much as a willow-tree usually shoots 
the first year after lopping its head. I could not 
tell what tree to call it that these stakes were cut 
from. I was surprised, and yet very well pleased to 
see the young trees grow, and I pruned them, and 
led them up to grow as much alike as I could. And 
it is scarce credible how beautiful a figure they grew 
into in three years ; so that though the hedge made 
a circle of about twenty-five yards in diameter, yet 


132 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


the trees, for such I might now call them, soon cov- 
ered it, and it was a complete shade, sufficient to 
lodge under all the dry season. 

This made me resolve to cut some more stakes, and 
make me a hedge like this, in a semicircle round my 
wall (I mean that of my first dwelling), which I did ; 
and placing the trees or stakes in a double row, at 
about eight yards’ distance from my first fence, they 
grew presently, and were at first a fine cover to my 
habitation, and afterward served for a defence also, 
as I shall observe in its order. 

I found now that the seasons of the year might 
generally be divided, not into summer and winter, as 
in Europe, but into the rainy seasons and the dry 
seasons ; which were generally thus : 


Dry, the sun being then to the 
north of the line. 


Half February, ^ 

March, > equinox. 

Half April, J ^ 

Half April, 

. May, 

June^ 

July^ 

Half August^ 

Half August^ ) Kainy, the sun being then come 
Septemler, > ]t)ack. 

Half October^ / 

Half October., 1 

November, (^Dry, the sun being then to the 

1 m r\nrv\ r\ rk/Vk / iT P j1 1* 


December, 
January, 
Half February, 


south of the line. 


The rainy season sometimes held longer or shorter, 
as the winds happened to blow, but this was the gen- 


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133 


eral observation I made. After I had found by ex- 
perience the ill consequence of being abroad in the 
rain, I took care to furnish myself with provisions 
beforehand, that I might not be obliged to go out; 
and I sat within doors as much as possible during the 
wet months. 

In this time I found much employment, and very 
suitable also to the time, for I found great occasion 
of many things which I had no way to furnish myself 
with but by hard labor and constant application; 
particularly, I tried many ways to make myself a 
basket ; but all the twigs I could get for the purpose 
proved so brittle that they would do nothing. It 
proved of excellent advantage to me now, that when 
I was a boy I used to take great delight in standing 
at a basket-maker’s in the town where my father 
lived, to see them make their wicker ware; and be- 
ing, as boys usually are, very officious to help, and 
a great observer of the manner how they worked 
those things, and sometimes lending a hand, I had 
by this means full knowledge of the methods of it, 
that I wanted nothing but the materials; when it 
came into my mind that the twigs of that tree from 
whence I cut my stakes that grew might possibly be 
as tough as the sallows, and willows, and osiers in 
England, and I resolved to try. 

Accordingly, the next day, I went to my country 
house, as I called it; and cutting some of the smaller 
twigs, I found them to my purpose as much as I 
could desire; whereupon I came the next time pre- 
pared with a hatchet to cut down a quantity, which 
I soon found, for there was great plenty of them. 
These I set up to dry within my circle or hedge, and 
when they were fit for use, I carried them to my 


134 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


cave; and here during the next season I employed 
myself in making, as well as I could, a great many 
baskets, both to carry earth, or to carry or lay up any- 
thing as I had occasion. And though I did not finish 
them very handsomely, yet I made them sufficiently 
serviceable for my purpose. And thus, afterwards, 
I took care never to be without them; and as my 
wicker ware decayed, I made more; especially I made 
strong deep baskets to place my corn in, instead of 
sacks, when I should come to have any quantity of it. 

Having mastered this difficulty, and employed a 
world of time about it, I bestirred myself to see, if 
possible, how to supply two wants. I had no vessels 
to hold anything that was liquid, except two runlets, 
which were almost full of rum, and some glass bot- 
tles, some of the common size, and others which were 
case-bottles square, for the holding of waters, spirits, 
etc. I had not so much as a pot to boil anything, 
except a great kettle, which I saved out of the ship, 
and which was too big for such use as I desired it, 
viz., to make broth, and stew a bit of meat by itself. 
The second thing I would fain have had was a to- 
bacco-pipe ; but it was impossible to me to make one. 
However, I found a contrivance for that, too, at last. 

I employed myself in planting my second rows of 
stakes or piles and in this wicker working all the sum- 
mer or dry season, when another business took me up 
more time than it could be imagined I could spare. 


CHAPTER XL 


EXPLORATION OF THE ISLAND. 

I MENTIONED before that I had a great mind to see 
the whole island, and that I had travelled np the 
brook, and so on to where I built my bower, and 
where I had an opening quite to the sea, on the other 
side of the island. I now resolved to travel quite 
across to the seashore on that side ; so taking my gun, 
a hatchet, and my dog, and a larger quantity of 
powder and shot than usual, with two biscuit-cakes 
and a great bunch of raisins in my pouch for my 
store, I began my journey. When I had passed the 
vale where my bower stood, as above, I came within 
view of the sea to the west ; and it being a very clear 
day, I fairly descried land, whether an island or a 
continent I could not tell; but it lay very high, ex- 
tending from the west to the W. S. W. at a very 
great distance; by my guess, it could not be less than 
fifteen or twenty leagues off. 

I could not tell what part of the world this might 
be, otherwise than that I know it must be part of 
America, and, as I concluded, by all my observa- 
tions, must be near the Spanish dominions, and per- 
haps was all inhabited by savages, where, if I should 
have landed, I had been in a worse condition than I 
was now; and therefore I acquiesced in the disposi- 
tions of Providence, which I began now to own and 
to believe ordered everything for the best. I say, I 


136 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


quieted my mind with this, and left afflicting myseK 
with fruitless wishes of being there. 

Besides, after some pause upon this afeir, I con- 
sidered that if this land was the Spanish coast, I 
should certainly, one time or other, see some vessel 
pass or repass one way or other ; but if not, then it 
was the savage coast between the Spanish country 
and Brazils, which are indeed the worst of savages; 
for they are cannibals or men-eaters, and fail not to 
murder and devour all the human bodies that fall 
into their hands. 

With these considerations I walked very leisurely 
forward. I found that side of the island, where I 
now was, much pleasanter than mine, the open or 
savanna fields sweet, adorned with flowers and grass, 
and full of very fine woods. 

I saw abundance of parrots, and fain I would have 
caught one, if possible, to have kept it to be tame, 
and taught it to speak to me. I did, after some 
painstaking, catch a young parrot, for I knocked it 
down with a stick, and having recovered it, I brought 
it home ; but it was some years before I could make 
him speak. However, at last I taught him to call 
me by my name very familiarly. But the accident 
that followed, though it be a trifle, will be very di- 
verting in its place. 

I was exceedingly diverted with this journey. I 
found in the low grounds hares, as I thought them to 
be, and foxes ; but they differed greatly from all the 
other kinds I had met with, nor could I satisfy myself 
to eat them, though I killed several. But I had no 
need to be venturous, for I had no want of food, and 
of that which was very good too; especially these 
three sorts, viz., goats, pigeons, and turtle or tortoise; 


EXPLORATION OF THE ISLAND. 137 

which, added to my grapes, Leadenhall Market could 
not have furnished a table better than I, in proportion 
to the company. And though my case was deplorable 
enough, yet I had great cause for thankfulness, and 
that I was not driven to any extremities for food, but 
rather plenty, even to dainties. 

I never travelled in this journey above two miles 
outright in a day, or thereabouts ; but I took so many 
turns and returns, to see what discoveries I could 
make, that I came weary enough to the place where 
I resolved to sit down for all night; and then I either 
reposed myself in a tree, or surrounded myself with 
a row of stakes, set upright in the ground, either 
from one tree to another, or so as no wild creature 
could come at me without waking me. 

As soon as I came to the seashore, I was surprised 
to see that I had taken up my lot on the worst side of 
the island, for here indeed the shore was covered with 
innumerable turtles; whereas, on the other side, I 
had found but three in a year and a half. Here was^ 
also an infinite number of fowls of many kinds, some 
which I had seen, and some which I had not seen of 
before, and many of them very good meat, but such 
as I knew not the names of, except those called pen- 
guins. 

I could have shot as many as I pleased, but was 
very sparing of my powder and shot, and therefore 
had more mind to kill a she goat, if I could, which I 
could better feed on; and though there were many 
goats here, more than on my side the island, yet it 
was with much more difficulty that I could come near 
them, the country being flat and even, and they saw 
me much sooner than when I was on the hill. 

I confess this side of the country was much pleas- 


138 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


anter than mine ; but yet 1 had not the least inclina- 
tion to remove, for as I was fixed in my habitation, 
it became natural to me, and I seemed all the while 
I was here to be as it were upon a journey, and from 
home. However, I travelled along the shore of the 
sea towards the east, I suppose about twelve miles, 
and then setting up a great pole upon the shore for a 
mark, I concluded I would go home again; and that 
the next journey I took should be on the other side 
of the island, east from my dwelling, and so round 
till I came to my post again; of which in its place. 

I took another way to come back than that I went, 
thinking I could easily keep all the island so much in 
my view that I could not miss finding my first dwell- 
ing by viewing the country. But I found myself 
mistaken ; for being come about two or three miles, I 
found myself descended into a very large valley, but 
so surrounded with hills, and those hills covered with 
wood, that I could not see which was my way by any 
direction but that of the sun, nor even then, unless 
I knew very well the position of the sun at that time 
of the day. 

It happened to my farther misfortune that the 
weather proved hazy for three or four days while I 
was in this valley ; and not being able to see the sun, 
I wandered about very uncomfortably, and at last 
was obliged to find out the seaside, look for my post, 
and come back the same way I went; and then by 
easy journeys I turned homeward, the weather being 
exceeding hot, and my gun, ammunition, hatchet, 
and other things very heavy. 

In this journey my dog surprised a young kid, and 
seized upon it, and I, running in to take hold of it, 
caught it, and saved it alive from the dog. I had a 


EXPLORATION OF THE ISLAND. 


139 


great mind to bring it home if I could, for I had 
often been musing whether it might not be possible 
to get a kid or two, and so raise a breed of tame 
goats, which might supply me when my powder and 
shot should be all spent. 

I made a collar to this little creature, and with a 
string, which I made of some rope-yarn, which I 
always carried about me, I led him along, though 
with some difficulty, till I came to my bower, and 
there I enclosed him and left him, for I was very 
impatient to be at home, from whence I had been 
absent above a month. 

I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me 
to come into my old hutch, and lie down in my ham- 
mock bed. This little wandering journey, without 
settled place of abode, had been so unpleasant to me 
that my own house, as I called it to myself, was a 
perfect settlement to me compared to that; and it 
rendered everything about me so comfortable that I 
resolved I would never go a great way from it again, 
while it should be my lot to stay on the island. 


CHAPTER XIL 


REGULAR LIFE. 

I REPOSED myself here a week, to rest and regale 
myself after my long journey; during which most of 
the time was taken up in the weighty affair of mak- 
ing a cage for my Poll, who began now to be a mere 
domestic, and to be mighty well acquainted with me. 
Then I began to think of the poor kid which I had 
penned in within my little circle, and resolved to go 
and fetch it home, or give it some food. Accordingly 
I went, and found it where I left it, for indeed it 
could not get out, but almost starved for want of 
food. I went and cut boughs of trees, and branches 
of such shrubs as I could find, and threw it over, and 
having fed it, I tied it as I did before, to lead it 
away; but it was so tame with being hungry that I 
had no need to have tied it, for it followed me like 
a dog. And as I continually fed it, the creature be- 
came so loving, so gentle, and so fond that it be- 
came from that time one of my domestics also, and 
would never leave me afterwards. 

The rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now 
come, and I kept the 30th of September in the same 
solemn manner as before, being the anniversary of 
my landing on the island, having now been there two 
years, and no more prospect of being delivered than 
the first day I came there. I spent the whole day in 
humble and thankful acknowledgments of the many 


REGULAR LIFE. 


141 


wonderful mercies which my solitary condition was 
attended with, and without which it might have been 
infinitely more miserable. I gave humble and hearty 
thanks that God had been pleased to discover to me 
even that it was possible I might be more happy in 
this solitary condition, than I should have been in a 
liberty of society, and in all the pleasures of the 
world ; that He could fully make up to me the defi- 
ciencies of my solitary state, and the want of human 
society, by His presence, and the communications of 
His grace to my soul, supporting, comforting, and 
encouraging me to depend upon His providence here, 
and hope for His eternal presence hereafter. 

It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much 
more happy this life I now led was, with all its mis- 
erable circumstances, than the wicked, cursed, abomi- 
nable life I led all the past part of my days. And 
now I changed both my sorrows and my joys; my 
very desires altered, my affections changed their 
gusts, and my delights were perfectly new from what 
they were at my first coming, or indeed for the two 
years past. 

Before, as I walked about, either on my hunting, 
or for viewing the country, the anguish of my soul at 
my condition would break out upon me on a sudden, 
and my very heart would die within me, to think of 
the woods, the mountains, the deserts I was in, and 
how I was a prisoner, locked up with the eternal bars 
and bolts of the ocean, in an uninhabited wilderness, 
without redemption. In the midst of the greatest 
composures of my mind, this would break out upon 
me like a storm, and make me wring my hands, and 
weep like a child. Sometimes it would take me in 
the middle of my work, and I would immediately sit 


142 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


down and sigh, and look upon the ground for an hour 
or two together; and this was still worse to me, for if 
I could burst out into tears, or vent myself by words, 
it would go off, and the grief, having exhausted itself, 
would abate. 

But now I began to exercise myself with new 
thoughts. I daily read the W ord of God, and applied 
all the comforts of it to my present state. One 
morning, being very sad, I opened the Bible upon 
these words, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake 
thee.” Immediately it occurred that these words 
were to me; why else should they be directed in 
such a manner, just at the moment when I was 
mourning over my condition, as one forsaken of God 
and man? “Well then,” said I, “if God does not 
forsake me, of what ill consequence can it be, or 
what matters it, though the world should all forsake 
me, seeing on the other hand if I had all the world, 
and should lose the favor and blessing of God, there 
would be no comparison in the loss? ” 

From this moment I began to conclude in my mind 
that it was possible for me to be more happy in this 
forsaken solitary condition, than it was probable I 
should ever have been in any other particular state in 
the world, and with this thought I was going to give 
thanks to God for bringing me to this place. 

I know not what it was, but something shocked my 
mind at that thought, and I durst not speak the 
words. “How canst thou be such a hypocrite,” said 
I, even audibly, “to pretend to be thankful for a con- 
dition which, however thou mayest endeavor to be 
contented with, thou wouldest rather pray heartily to 
be delivered from?” So I stopped there; but though 
I could not say I thanked God for being there, yet I 


REGULAR LIFE. 


143 


sincerely gave thanks to God for opening my eyes, by 
whatever afflicting providences, to see the former con- 
dition of my life, and to mourn for my wickedness, 
and repent. I never opened the Bible, nor shut it, 
but my very soul within me blessed God for direct- 
ing my friend in England, without any order of mine, 
to pack it up among my goods, and for assisting me 
afterwards to save it out of the wreck of the ship. 

Thus, and in this disposition of mind, I began my 
third year; and though I have not given the reader 
the trouble of so particular account of my works this 
year as the first, yet in general it may be observed 
that I was very seldom idle, but having regularly 
divided my time, according to the several daily em- 
ployments that were before me, such as, first, my 
duty to God, and the reading the Scriptures, which 
I constantly set apart some time for, thrice every 
day; secondly, the going abroad with my gun for 
food, which generally took me up three hours in 
every morning, when it did not rain; thirdly, the 
ordering, curing, preserving, and cooking what I had 
killed or catched for my supply; these took up great 
part of the day; also, it is to be considered that the 
middle of the day, when the sun was in the zenith, 
the violence of the heat was too great to stir out ; so 
that about four hours in the evening was all the time 
I could be supposed to work in, with this exception, 
that sometimes I changed my hours of hunting and 
working, and went to work in the morning, and 
abroad with my gun in the afternoon. 

To this short time allowed for labor, I desire may 
be added the exceeding laboriousness of my work; 
the many hours which, for want of tools, want of 
help, and want of skill, everything I did took up out 


144 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


of my time. For example, I was full two and forty 
days making me a board for a long shelf, which I 
wanted in my cave; whereas two sawyers, with their^ 
tools and a saw-pit, would have cut six of them out 
of the same tree in half a day. 

My case was this : it was to be a large tree which 
was to be cut down, because my board was to be a 
broad one. This tree I was three days a-cutting 
down, and two more cutting off the boughs, and 
reducing it to a log, or piece of timber. With inex- 
pressible hacking and hewing, I reduced both the 
sides of it into chips till it begun to be light enough 
to move; then I turned it, and made one side of it 
smooth and flat as a board from end to end; then 
turning that side downward, cut the other side, till I 
brought the plank to be about three inches thick, and 
smooth on both sides. Any one may judge the labor 
of my hands in such a piece of work; but labor and 
patience carried me through that, and many other 
things. I only observe this in particular, to show 
the reason why so much of my time went away with 
so little work, viz., that what might be a little to be 
done with help and tools was a vast labor, and re- 
quired a prodigious time, to do alone and by hand. 
But notwithstanding this, with patience and labor, 
I went through many things, and, indeed, every- 
thing that my circumstances made necessary to me 
to do, as will appear by what follows. 

I was now, in the months of November and Decem- 
ber, expecting my crop of barley and rice. The 
ground I had manured or dug up for them was not 
great; for as I observed, my seed of each was not 
above the quantity of half a peck ; for I had lost one 
whole crop by sowing in the dry season. But now 


REGULAR LIFE. 


145 


my crop promised very well, when on a sudden I 
found I was in danger of losing it all again by ene- 
mies of several sorts, which it was scarce possible to 
keep from it; as, first, the goats and wild creatures 
which I called hares, who, tasting the sweetness of 
the blade, lay in it night and day, as soon as it came 
up, and eat it so close that it could get no time to 
shoot up into stalk. 

This I saw no remedy for but by making an enclo- 
sure about it with a hedge, which I did with a great 
deal of toil, and the more, because it required speed. 
However, as my arable land was but small, suited to 
my crop, I got it totally well fenced in about three 
weeks’ time, and shooting some of the creatures in 
the daytime, I set my dog to guard it in the night, 
tying him up to a stake at the gate, where he would 
stand and bark all night long ; so in a little time the 
enemies forsook the place, and the corn grew very 
strong and well, and began to ripen apace. 

But as the beasts ruined me before while my corn 
was in the blade, so the birds were as likely to ruin 
me now when it was in the ear ; for going along by 
the place to see how it throve, I saw my little crop 
surrounded with fowls, of I know hot how many 
sorts, who stood, as it were, watching till I. should be 
gone. I immediately let fly among them, for I always 
had my gun with me. I had no sooner shot, but 
there rose up a little cloud of fowls, which I had not 
seen at all, from among the corn itself. 

This touched me sensibly, for I foresaw that in a 
few days they would devour all my hopes, that I 
should be starved, and never be able to raise a crop 
at all, and what to do I could not tell. However, I 
resolved not to lose my corn, if possible, though I 


146 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


should watch it night and day. In the first place, I 
went among it to see what damage was already done, 
and found they had spoiled a good deal of it; but 
that as it was yet too green for them, the loss was 
not so great but that the remainder was like to be a 
good crop if it could be saved. 

I stayed by it to load my gun, and then coming 
away, I could easily see the thieves sitting upon all 
the trees about me, as if they only waited till I was 
gone away. And the event proved it to be so; for 
as I walked off, as if I was gone, I was no sooner out 
of their sight but they dropped down, one by one, 
into the corn again. I was so provoked that I could 
not have patience to stay till more came on, know- 
ing that every grain that they eat now was, as it 
might be said, a peck-loaf to me in the consequence ; 
but coming up to the hedge, I fired again, and killed 
three of them. This was what I wished for; so I 
took them up, and served them as we serve notorious 
thieves in England, viz., hanged them in chains, for 
a terror to others. It is impossible to imagine almost 
that this should have such an effect as it had, for the 
fowls would not only not come at the corn, but, in 
short, they forsook all that part of the island, and I 
could never see a bird near the place as long as my 
scarecrows hung there. 

This I was very glad of, you may be sure; and 
about the latter end of December, which was our 
second harvest of the year, I reaped my crop. 

I was sadly put to it for a scythe or a sickle to cut 
it down, and all I could do was to make one as well 
as I could out of one of the broadswords, or cutlasses, 
which I saved among the arms out of the ship. How- 
ever, as my first crop was but small, I had no great 


REGULAR LIFE. 


147 


difficulty to cut it down; in short, I reaped it my 
way, for I cut nothing off but the ears, and carried 
it away in a great basket which I had made, and so 
rubbed it out with my hands ; and at the end of all 
my harvesting, I found that out of my half peck of 
seed I had near two bushels ‘of rice, and above two 
bushels and a half of barley, that is to say, by my 
guess, for I had no measure at that time. 

However, this was a great encouragement to me, 
and I foresaw that, in time, it would please God to 
supply me with bread. And yet here I was perplexed 
again, for I neither knew how to grind or make meal 
of my corn, nor indeed how to clean it and part it; 
nor, if made into meal, how to make bread of it, and 
if how to make it, yet I knew not how to bake it. 
These things being added to my desire of having a 
good quantity for store, and to secure a constant sup- 
ply, I resolved not to taste any of this crop, but to 
preserve it all for seed against the next season, and, 
in the meantime, to employ all my study and hours of 
working to accomplish this great work of providing 
myself with corn and bread. 

It might be truly said that now I worked for my 
bread. ’Tis a little wonderful, and what I believe 
few people have thought much upon, viz., the strange 
multitude of little things necessary in the providing, 
producing, curing, dressing, making, and finishing 
this one article of bread. 

I, that was reduced to a mere state of nature, 
found this to my daily discouragement, and was made 
more and more sensible of it every hour, even after 
I had got the first handful of seed-corn, which, as I 
have said, came up unexpectedly, and indeed to a 
surprise. 


148 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


First, I had no plough to turn up the earth, no 
spade or shovel to dig it. Well, this I conquered by 
making a wooden spade, as I observed before, but 
this did my work in but a wooden manner; and 
though it cost me a great many days to make it, yet, 
for want of iron, it not only wore out the sooner, but 
made my work the harder, and made it be performed 
much worse. 

However, this I bore with, and was content to 
work it out with patience, and bear with the badness 
of the performance. When the corn was sowed, I 
had no harrow, but was forced to go over it myself, 
and drag a great heavy bough of a tree over it, to 
scratch it, as it may be called, rather than rake or 
harrow it. 

When it was growing and grown, I have observed 
already how many things I wanted to fence it, secure 
it, mow or reap it, cure and carry it home, thrash, 
part it from the chaff, and save it. Then I wanted 
a mill to grind it; sieves to dress it, yeast and salt to 
make it into bread, and an oven to bake it, and yet 
all these things I did without, as shall be observed ; 
•and yet the corn was an inestimable comfort and 
advantage to me too. All this, as I said, made 
everything laborious and tedious to me, but that there 
was no help for ; neither was my time so much loss 
to me, because, as I had divided it, a certain part of 
it was every day appointed to these works, and as I 
resolved to use none of the corn for bread till I had 
a greater quantity by me, I had the next six months 
to apply myself wholly, by labor and invention, to 
furnish myself with utensils proper for the perform- 
ing all the operations necessary for the making the 
corn, when I had it, fit for my use. 


REGULAR LIFE, 


149 


But first I was to prepare more land, for I had now 
seed enough to sow above an acre of ground. Before 
I did this, I had a week’s work at least to make me 
a spade, which, when it was done, was but a sorry- 
one indeed, and very heavy, and required double 
labor to work with it. However, I went through 
that, and sowed my seed in two large flat pieces of 
ground, as near my house as I could find them to my 
mind, and fenced them in with a good hedge, the 
stakes of which were all cut of that wood which I 
had set before, and knew it would grow ; so that in 
one year’s time I knew I should have a quick or liv- 
ing hedge, that would want but little repair. This 
work was not so little as to take me up less than three 
months, because great part of that time was of the 
wet season, when I could not go abroad. 

Within doors, that is, when it rained, and I could 
not go out, I found employment on the following 
occasions ; always observing^ that all the while I was 
at work, I diverted myself with talking to my parrot, 
and teaching him to speak, and I quickly learned ^ 
him to know his own name, and at last to speak it 
out pretty loud, ‘‘Poll,” which was the first word I 
ever heard spoken in the island by any mouth but 
my own. This, therefore, was not my work, but 
an assistant to my work; for now, as I said, I had a 
great employment upon my hands, as follows, viz., I 
had long studied, by some means or other, to make 
myself some earthen vessels, which indeed I wanted 
sorely, but knew not where to come at them. How- 

1 The use of the word learn ’’ in the active sense of “ teach ’’ 
was still observed in Defoe’s time. It may be found earlier 
in the Psalter in the Book of Common Prayer. But usage now 
makes the phrase above inelegant English. 


150 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


ever, considering the heat of the climate, I did not 
doubt but if I could find out any such clay, I might 
botch up some such pot as might, being dried in the 
sun, be hard enough and strong enough to bear hand- 
ling, and to hold anything that was dry, and re- 
quired to be kept so; and as this was necessary in 
the preparing corn, meal, etc., which was the thing 
I was upon, I resolved to make some as large as I 
could, and fit only to stand like jars, to hold what 
should be put into them. 

It would make the reader pity me, or rather laugh 
at me, to tell how many awkward ways I took to raise 
this paste; what odd, misshapen, ugly things I 
made ; how many of them fell in, and how many fell 
out, the clay not being stiff enough to bear its own 
weight; how many cracked by the over-violent heat 
of the sun, being set out too hastily; and how many 
fell in pieces with only removing, as well before as 
after they were dried; and, in a word, how, after 
having labored hard to find the clay, to dig it, to 
temper it, to bring it home, and work it, I could not 
make above two large earthen ugly things (I cannot 
call them jars) in about two months’ labor. 

However, as the sun baked these two very dry and 
hard, I lifted them very gently up, and set them 
down again in two great wicker baskets, which I had 
made on purpose for them, that they might not break ; 
and as between the pot and the basket there was a 
little room to spare, I stuffed it full of the rice and 
barley straw, and these two pots being to stand 
always dry, I thought would hold my dry corn, and 
perhaps the meal, when the corn was bruised. 

Though I miscarried so much in my design for 
large pots, yet I made several smaller things with 


REGULAR LIFE. 


151 


better success; such as little round pots, flat dishes, 
pitchers, and pipkins, and any things my hand turned 
to; and the heat of the sun baked them strangely 
hard. But all this would not answer my end, which 
was to get an earthen pot to hold what was liquid, 
and bear the fire, which none of these could do. It 
happened after some time, making a pretty large fire 
for cooking my meat, when I went to put it out after 
I had done with it, I found a broken piece of one of 
my earthenware vessels in the fire, burnt as hard as 
a stone, and red as a tile. I was agreeably surprised 
to see it, and said to myself that certainly they might 
be made to burn whole, if they would burn broken. 

This set me to studying how to order my fire so 
as to make it burn me some pots. I had no notion 
of a kiln, such as the potters burn in, or of glazing 
them with lead, though I had some lead to do it 
with; but I placed three large pipkins, and two or 
three pots in a pile, one upon another, and placed my 
firewood all round it, with a great heap of embers 
under them. I plied the fire with fresh fuel round 
the outside, and upon the top, till I saw the pots in 
the inside red-hot quite through, and observed that 
they did not crack at all. When I saw them clear 
red, I let them stand in that heat about five or six 
hours, till I found one of them, though it did not 
crack, did melt or run, for the sand which was mixed 
with the clay melted by the violence of the heat, and 
would have run into glass, if I had gone on; so I 
slacked my fire gradually till the pots began to abate 
of the red color ; and watching them all night, that 
I might not let the fire abate too fast, in the morning 
I had three very good, I will not say handsome, pip- 
kins, and two other earthen pots, as hard burnt as 


152 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


could be desired, and one of them perfectly glazed 
with the running of the sand. 

After this experiment I need not say that I wanted 
no sort of earthenware for my use ; but I must needs 
say, as to the shapes of them, they were very indiffer- 
ent, as any one may suppose, when I had no way of 
making them but as the children make dirt pies, or 
as a woman would make pies that never learned to 
raise paste. 

No joy at a thing of so mean a nature was ever 
equal to mine when I found I had made an earthen 
pot that would bear the fire ; and I had hardly pa- 
tience to stay till they were cold, before I set one 
upon the fire again, with some water in it, to boil me 
some meat, which it did admirably well; and with 
a piece of a kid I made some very good broth, though 
I wanted oatmeal and several other ingredients requi- 
site to make it so good as I would have had it been. 

My next concern was to get me a stone mortar to 
stamp or beat some corn in ; for as to the mill, there 
was no thought at arriving to that perfection of art 
with one pair of hands. To supply this want I was 
at a great loss ; for, of all trades in the world, I was 
as perfectly unqualified for a stone-cutter as for any 
whatever; neither had I any tools to go about it 
with. I spent many a day to find out a great stone 
big enough to cut hollow, and make fit for a mortar, 
and could find none at all, except what was in the 
solid rock, and which I had no way to dig or cut out ; 
nor indeed were the rocks in the island of hardness 
sufficient, but were all of a sandy, crumbling stone, 
which neither would bear the weight of a heavy 
pestle or would break the corn without filling it with 
sand. So, after a great deal of time lost in searching 


REGULAR LIFE. 


153 


for a stone, I gave it over, and resolved to look out 
for a great block of hard wood, which I found indeed 
much easier; and getting one as big as I had strength 
to stir, I rounded it, and formed it in the outside 
with my axe and hatchet, and then, with the help of 
fire, and infinite labor, made a hollow place in it, as 
the Indians m Brazil make their canoes. After this, 
I made a great heavy pestle, or beater, of the wood 
called the iron-wood; and this I prepared and laid 
by against I had my next crop of corn, when I pro- 
posed to myself to grind, or rather pound, my corn 
into meal, to make my bread. 

My next difficulty was to make a sieve, or search, 
to dress my meal, and to part it from the bran and 
the husk, without which I did not see it possible I 
could have any bread. This was a most difficult 
thing, so much as but to think on, for to be sure I 
had nothing like the necessary thing to make it; I 
mean fine thin canvas or stuff, to search the meal 
through. And here I was at a full stop for many 
months, nor did I really know what to do; linen I 
had none left, but what was mere rags ; I had goats’ 
hair, but neither knew I how to weave it' or spin it; 
and had I known how, here was no tools to work it 
with. All the remedy that I found for this was, that 
at last I did remember I had, among the seamen’s 
clothes which were saved out of the ship, some neck- 
cloths of calico or muslin ; and with some pieces of 
these I made three small sieves, but proper enough 
for the work ; and thus I made shift for some years. 
How I did afterwards, I shall show in its place. 

The baking part was the next thing to be consid- 
ered, and how I should make bread when I came to 
have corn; for, first, I had no yeast. As to that 


154 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


part, as there was no supplying the want, so I did 
not concern myself much about it; but for an oven 
I was indeed in great pain. At length I found out 
an experiment for that also, which was this : I made 
some earthen vessels very broad, but not deep, that 
is to say, about two feet diameter, and not above 
nine inches deep ; these I burned in the fire, as I had 
done the other, and laid them by ; and when I wanted 
to bake, I made a great fire upon my hearth, which 
I had paved with some square tiles, of my own mak- 
ing and burning also; but I should not call them 
square. 

When the firewood was burned pretty much into 
embers, or live coals, I drew them forward upon this 
hearth, so as to cover it all over, and there I let them 
lie till the hearth was very hot; then sweeping away 
all the embers, I set down my loaf, or loaves, and, 
whelming ^ down the earthen pot upon them, drew the 
embers all round the outside of the pot, to keep in 
and add to the heat. And thus, as well as in the 
best oven in the world, I baked my barley loaves, 
and became, in little time, a mere ^ pastry-cook into 
the bargain ; for I made myself several cakes of the 
rice, and puddings; indeed I made no pies, neither 
had I anything to put into them, supposing I had, 
except the flesh either of fowls or goats. 

It need not be wondered at if all these things took 
me up most part of the third year of my abode here ; 
for it is to be observed, that in the intervals of these 
things I had my new harvest and husbandry to man- 

^ A curious use of the word signifying apparently that the 
pot was put upside down over the loaves. 

2 Defoe apparently recurs to an obsolete use of this word, as 
if he said playfully “ a famous pastry-cook.^’ 


REGULAR LIFE. 


155 


age; for I reaped my corn in its season, and carried 
it home as well as I could, and laid it up in tlie ear, 
in my large baskets, till I had time to rub it out, 
for I had no floor to thrash it on, or instrument to 
thrash it with. 

And now, indeed, my stock of corn increasing, I 
really wanted to build my barns bigger. I wanted 
a place to lay it up in, for the increase of the. corn 
now yielded me so much that I had of the barley 
about twenty bushels, and of the rice as much, or 
more, insomuch that now I resolved to begin to use 
it freely ; for my bread had been quite gone a great 
while ; also, I resolved to see what quantity would be 
sufficient for me a whole year, and to sow but once 
a year. 

Upon the whole, I found that the forty bushels of 
barley and rice was much more than I could consume 
in a year; so I resolved to sow just the same quantity 
every year that I sowed the last, in hopes that such 
a quantity would fully provide me with bread, etc. 


CHAPTER XIIL 


BUILDING A BOAT. 

All the while these things were doing, you may 
be sure my thoughts run many times upon the pros- 
pect of land which I had seen from the other side of 
the island, and I was not without secret wishes that 
I were on shore there, fancying the seeing the main- 
land, and in an inhabited country I might find some 
way or other to convey myself farther, and perhaps 
at last find some means of escape. 

But all this while I made no allowance for the 
dangers of such a condition, and how I might fall 
into the hands of savages, and perhaps such as I 
might have reason to think far worse than the lions 
and tigers of Africa; that if I once came into their 
power, I should run a hazard more than a thousand 
to one of being killed, and perhaps of being eaten; 
for I had heard that the people of the Caribbean coasts 
were cannibals, or man-eaters, and I knew by the lati- 
tude that I could not be far off from that shore. 
That suppose they were not cannibals, yet that they 
might kill me, as many Europeans who had fallen 
into their hands had been served, even when they had 
been ten or twenty together, much more I, that was 
but one, and could make little or no defence; all 
these things, I say, which I ought to have considered 
well of, and did cast up in my thoughts afterwards, 
yet took up none of my apprehensions at first, but 


BUILDING A BOAT. 157 

my head ran mightily upon the thought of getting 
over to the shore. 

Now I wished for my boy Xury, and the long-boat 
with the shoulder-of -mutton sail, with which I sailed 
above a thousand miles on the coast of Africa; but 
this was in vain. Then I thought I would go and 
look at our ship’s boat, which, as I have said, was 
blown up upon the shore a great way, in the storm, 
when we were first cast away. She lay almost where 
she did at first, but not quite; and was turned, by 
the force of the waves and the winds, almost bottom 
upward, against a high ridge of beachy rough sand, 
but no water about her, as before. 

If I had had hands to have refitted her, and to 
have launched her into the water, the boat would 
have done well enough, and I might have gone back 
into the Brazils with her easily enough ; but I might 
have foreseen that I could no more turn her, and set 
her upright upon her bottom, than I could remove 
the island. However, I went to the woods, and cut 
levers and rollers, and brought them to the boat, re- 
solved to try what I could do ; suggesting to myself 
that if I could but turn her down, I might easily 
repair the damage she had received, and she would 
be a very good boat, and I might go to sea in her 
very easily. 

I spared no pains, indeed, in this piece of fruitless 
toil, and spent, I think, three or four weeks about 
it. At last finding it impossible to heave it up with 
my little strength, I fell to digging away the sand, 
to undermine it, and so to make it fall down, setting 
pieces of wood to thrust and guide it right in the fall. 
But when I had done this, I was unable to stir it up 
again, or to get under it, much less to move it for- 


158 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


ward towards the water; so I was forced to give it 
over. And yet, though I gave over the hopes of the 
boat, my desire to venture over for the main in- 
creased, rather than decreased, as the means for it 
seemed impossible. 

This at length put me upon thinking whether it 
was not possible to make myself a canoe, ov periagua., 
such as the natives of those climates make, even with- 
out tools, or, as I might say, without hands, viz., 
of the trunk of a great tree. This I not only thought 
possible, but easy, and pleased myself extremely with 
the thoughts of making it, and with my having much 
more convenience for it than any of the negroes or 
Indians; but not at all considering the particular 
inconveniences which I lay under more than the In- 
dians did, viz., want of hands to move it, when it 
was made, into the water, a difficulty much harder 
for me to surmount than all the consequences of want 
of tools could be to them. For what was it to me, 
that when I had chosen a vast tree in the woods, I 
might with much trouble cut it down, if, after I 
might be able with my tools to hew and dub the out- 
side into the proper shape of a boat, and burn or cut 
out the inside to make it hollow, so to make a boat 
of it; if, after all this, I must leave it just there 
where I found it, and was not able to launch it into 
the water ? 

One would have thought I could not have had the 
least reflection upon my mind of my circumstance 
while I was making this boat, but I should have 
immediately thought how I should get it into the sea ; 
but my thoughts were so intent upon my voyage over 
the sea in it that I never once considered how I 
should get it off of the land ; and it was really, in its 


BUILDING A BOAT. 


169 


own nature, more easy for me to guide it over forty- 
five miles of sea than about forty-five fathoms of 
land, where it lay, to set it afloat in the water. 

I went to work upon this boat the most like a fool 
that ever man did who had any of his senses awake. 
I pleased myself with the design, without determining 
whether I was ever able to undertake it. Not but 
that the difficulty of launching my boat came often 
into my head; but I put a stop to my own inquiries 
into it, by this foolish answer which I gave myself, 
“Let ’s first make it; I ’ll warrant I ’ll find some way 
or other to get it along when ’tis done.” 

This was a most preposterous method; but the 
eagerness of my fancy prevailed, and to work I went. 
I felled a cedar-tree: I question much whether Solo- 
mon ever had such a one for the building of the 
Temple at Jerusalem. It was five feet ten inches 
diameter at the lower part next the stump, and four 
feet eleven inches diameter at the end of twenty-two 
feet, after which it lessened for a while, and then 
parted into branches. It was not without infinite 
labor that I felled this tree. I was twenty days 
hacking and hewing at it at the bottom ; I was four- 
teen more getting the branches and limbs, and the 
vast spreading head of it cut off, which I hacked and 
hewed through with axe and hatchet, and inexpressi- 
ble labor. After this, it cost me a month to shape 
it and dub it to a proportion, and to something like 
the bottom of a boat, that it might swim upright as 
it ought to do. It cost me near three months more 
to clear the inside, and work it so as to make an exact 
boat of it. This I did, indeed, without fire, by mere 
mallet and chisel, and by the dint of hard labor, till 
I had brought it to be a very handsome periagua^ and 


160 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


big enough to have carried six and twenty men, and 
consequently big enough to have carried me and all 
my cargo. 

When I had gone through this work, I was ex- 
tremely delighted with it. The boat was really much 
bigger than I ever saw a canoe or periagua that was 
made of one tree, in my life. Many a weary stroke 
it had cost, you may be sure; and there remained 
nothing but to get it into the water ; and had I gotten 
it into the water, I make no question but I should 
have begun the maddest voyage, and the most unlikely 
to be performed, that ever was undertaken. 

But all my devices to get it into the water failed 
me, though they cost me infinite labor too. It lay 
about one hundred yards from the water, and not 
more ; but the first inconvenience was, it was uphill 
towards the creek. Well, to take away this discour- 
agement, I resolved to dig into the surface of the 
earth, and so make a declivity. This I began, and 
it cost me a prodigious deal of pains; but who grudges 
pains that have their deliverance in view ? But when 
this was worked through, and this difficulty managed, 
it was still much at one, for I could no more stir the 
canoe than I could the other boat. 

Then I measured the distance of ground, and re- 
solved to cut a dock or canal, to bring the water up 
to the canoe, seeing I could not bring the canoe down 
to the water. Well, I began this work; and when 
I began to enter into it, and calculate how deep it 
was to be dug, how broad, how the stuff to be thrown 
out, I found that by the number of hands I had, 
being none but my own, it must have been ten or 
twelve years before I should have gone through with 
it ; for the shore lay high, so that at the upper end 


BUILDING A BOAT. 


161 


it must have been at least twenty feet deep; so at 
length, though with great reluctancy, I gave this 
attempt over also. 

This grieved me heartily; and now I saw, though 
too late, the folly of beginning a work before we 
count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our 
own strength to go through with it. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


MONARCH OF ALL HE SURVEYED. 

In the middle of this work I finished my fourth 
year in this place, and kept my anniversary with the 
same devotion, and with as much comfort as ever 
before ; for, by a constant study and serious applica- 
tion of the Word of God, and by the assistance of 
His grace, I gained a different knowledge from what 
I had before. I entertained different notions of 
things. I looked now upon the world as a thing 
remote, which I had nothing to do with, no expecta- 
tion from, and, indeed, no desires about. In a word, 
I had nothing indeed to do with it, nor was ever like 
to have; so I thought it looked, as we may perhaps 
look upon it hereafter, viz., as a place I had lived in, 
but was come out of it; and well might I say, as 
father Abraham to Dives, ‘‘Between me and thee is 
a great gulf fixed.” 

In the first place, I was removed from all the 
wickedness of the world here. I had neither the lust 
of the fiesh, the lust of the eye, or the pride of life. 
I had nothing to covet, for I had all that I was now 
capable of enjoying. I was lord of the whole manor; 
or, if I pleased, I might call myself king or emperor 
over the whole country which I had possession of. 
There were no rivals : I had no competitor, none to 
dispute sovereignty or command with me. I might 
have raised ship-loadings of corn, but I had no use 


MONARCH OF ALL HE SURVEYED. 163 


for it ; so I let as little grow as I thought enough for 
my occasion. I had tortoise or turtles enough, but 
now and then one was as much as I could put to any 
use. I had timber enough to have built a fleet of 
ships. I had grapes enough to have made wine, or 
to have cured into raisins, to have loaded that fleet 
when they had been built. 

But all I could make use of was all that was valu- 
able. I had enough to eat and to supply my wants, 
and what was all the rest to me ? If I killed more 
flesh than I could eat, the dog must eat it, or the 
vermin. If I sowed more corn than I could eat, it 
must be spoiled. The trees that I cut down were 
lying to rot on the ground ; I could make no more 
use of them than for fuel, and that I had no occasion 
for but to dress my food. 

In a word, the nature and experience of things 
dictated to me, upon just reflection, that all the good 
things of this world are no farther good to us than 
they are for our use ; and that whatever we may heap 
up indeed to give others, we enjoy just as much as 
we can use, and no more. The most covetous grip- 
ing miser in the world would have been cured of the 
vice of covetousness, if he had been in my case; for 
I possessed inflnitely more than I knew what to do 
with. I had no room for desire, except it was of 
things which I had not, and they were but trifles, 
though indeed of great use to me. I had, as I hinted 
before, a parcel of money, as well gold as silver, 
about thirty-six pounds sterling. Alas! there the 
nasty, sorry, useless stuff lay; I had no manner of 
business for it; and I often thought with myself 
that I would have given a handful of it for a gross 
of tobacco-pipes, or for a hand-mill to grind my 


164 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


corn; nay, I would have given it all for six penny- 
worth of turnip and carrot seed out of England, or 
for a handful of peas and beans, and a bottle of ink. 
As it was, I had not the least advantage by it, or 
benefit from it; but there it lay in a drawer, and 
grew mouldy with the damp of the cave in the wet 
season ; and if I had had the drawer full of diamonds, 
it had been the same case, and they had been of no 
manner of value to me because of no use. 

I had now brought my state of life to be much 
easier in itself than it was at first, and much easier 
to my mind, as well as to my body. I frequently sat 
down to my meat with thankfulness, and admired the 
hand of God’s providence, which had thus spread my 
table in the wilderness. I learned to look more upon 
the bright side of my condition, and less upon the 
dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed, rather 
than what I wanted; and this gave me sometimes 
such secret comforts that I cannot express them ; and 
which I take notice of here, to put those discontented 
people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably 
what God has given them, because they see and covet 
something that He has not given them. All our dis- 
contents about what we want appeared to me to spring 
from the want of thankfulness for what we have. 

Another reflection was of great use to me, and 
doubtless would be so to any one that should fall into 
such distress as mine was ; and this was, to compare 
my present condition with what I at first expected it 
should be; nay, with what it would certainly have 
been, if the good providence of God had not wonder- 
fully ordered the ship to be cast up nearer to the 
shore, where I not only could come at her, but could 
bring what I got out of her to the shore, for my relief 


MONARCH OF ALL HE SURVEYED. 165 


and comfort ; without which I had wanted for tools to 
work, weapons for defence, or gunpowder and shot 
for getting my food. 

I spent whole hours, I may say whole days, in 
representing to myself, in the most lively colors, how 
I must have acted if I had got nothing out of the 
ship. How I could not have so much as got any 
food, except fish and turtles ; and that as it was long 
before I found any of them, I must have perished 
first; that I should have lived, if I had not perished, 
like a mere savage ; that if I had killed a goat or a 
fowl, by any contrivance, I had no way to flay or 
open them, or part the flesh from the skin and the 
bowels, or to cut it up; but must gnaw it with my 
teeth, and pull it with my claws, like a beast. 

These reflections made me very sensible of the good- 
ness of Providence to me, and very thankful for my 
present condition, with all its hardships and misfor- 
tunes ; and this part also I cannot but recommend to 
the reflection of those who are apt, in their misery, to 
say. Is any affliction like mine? Let them consider 
how much worse the cases of some people are, and their 
case might have been, if Providence had thought fit. 

I had another reflection which assisted me also to 
comfort my mind with hopes ; and this was, compar- 
ing my present condition with what I had deserved, 
and had therefore reason to expect from the hand of 
Providence. I had lived a dreadful life, perfectly 
destitute of the knowledge and fear of God. I had 
been well instructed by father and mother; neither 
had they been wanting to me in their early endeavors 
to infuse a religious awe of God into my mind, a 
sense of my duty, and of what the nature and end of 
my being required of me. But, alas! falling early 


166 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


into the seafaring life, which, of all the lives, is the 
most destitute of the fear of God, though His terrors 
are always before them, — I say, falling early into the 
seafaring life, and into seafaring company, all that 
little sense of religion which I had entertained was 
laughed out of me by my messmates ; by a hardened 
despising of dangers, and the views of death, which 
grew habitual to me; by my long absence from all 
manner of opportunities to converse with anything 
but what was like myself, or to hear anything that 
was good, or tended towards it. 

So void was I of everything that was good, or of 
the least sense of what I was, or was to be, that in 
the greatest deliverances I enjoyed, such as my escape 
from Sallee; my being taken up by the Portuguese 
master of the ship ; my being planted so well in the 
Brazils; my receiving the cargo from England, and 
the like, I never had once the words, “Thank God,” 
so much as on my mind, or in my mouth; nor in the 
greatest distress had I so much as a thought to pray 
to Him, or so much as to say, “Lord, have mercy 
upon me!” no, nor to mention the name of God, 
unless it was to swear by and blaspheme it. 

I had terrible reflections upon my mind for many 
months, as I have already observed, on the account 
of my wicked and hardened life past; and when I 
looked about me, and considered what particular 
providences had attended me since my coming into 
this place, and how God had dealt bountifully with 
me, had not only punished me less than my iniquity 
had deserved, but had so plentifully provided for me ; 
this gave me great hopes that my repentance was 
accepted, and that God had yet mercy in store for me. 

With these reflections, I worked my mind up, not 


MONARCH OF ALL HE SURVEYED. 167 


only to resignation to the will of God in the present 
disposition of my circumstances, but even to a sincere 
thankfulness for my condition ; and that I, who was 
yet a living man, ought not to complain, seeing I had 
not the due punishment of my sins; that I enjoyed 
so many mercies, which I had no reason to have ex- 
pected in that place; that I ought never more to 
repine at my condition, but to rejoice, and to give 
daily thanks for that daily bread, which nothing but 
a crowd of wonders could have brought; that I ought 
to consider I had been fed even by miracle, even as 
great as that of feeding Elijah by ravens; nay, by a 
long series of miracles ; and that I could hardly have 
named a place in the unhabitable part of the world 
where I could have been cast more to my advantage; 
a place where, as I had no society, which was my 
affliction on one hand, so I found no ravenous beasts, 
no furious wolves or tigers, to threaten my life; no 
venomous creatures or poisonous, which I might feed 
on to my hurt; no savages to murder and devour me. 

In a word, as my life was a life of sorrow one way, 
so it was a life of mercy another; and I wanted 
nothing to make it a life of comfort, but to be able 
to make my sense of God’s goodness to me, and care 
over me in this condition, be my daily consolation; 
and after I did make a just improvement of these 
things, I went away, and was no more sad. 

I had now been here so long that many things 
which I brought on shore for my help were either 
quite gone, or very much wasted, and near spent. 
My ink, as I observed, had been gone for some time, 
all but a very little, which I eked out with water, a 
little and a little, till it was so pale it scarce left any 
appearance of black upon the paper. As long as it 


168 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


lasted, I made use of it to minute down the days of 
the month on which any remarkable thing happened to 
me. And, first, by casting up times past, I remem- 
ber that there was a strange concurrence of days in 
the various providences which befell me, and which, 
if I had been superstitiously inclined to observe days 
as fatal or fortunate, I might have had reason to have 
looked upon with a great deal of curiosity. 

First, I had observed that the same day that I 
broke away from my father and my friends, and run 
away to Hull, in order to go to sea, the same day 
afterwards I was taken by the Sallee man-of-war, and 
made a slave. 

The same day of the year that I escaped out of the 
wreck of that ship in Yarmouth Eoads, that same 
day -year afterwards I made my escape from Sallee in 
the boat. 

The same day of the year I was born on, viz., the 
30th of September, that same day I had my life so 
miraculously saved twenty-six years after, when I was 
cast on shore in this island ; so that my wicked life 
and my solitary life began both on a day. 

The next thing to my ink’s being wasted was that 
of my bread; I mean the biscuit, which I brought 
out of the ship. This I had husbanded to the last 
degree, allowing myself but one cake of bread a day 
for above a year ; and yet I was quite without bread 
for near a year before I got any corn of my own ; and 
great reason I had to be thankful that I had any at 
all, the getting it being, as has been already observed, 
next to miraculous. 

My clothes began to decay, too, mightily. As to 
linen, I had none a good while, except some chequered 
shirts which I found in the chests of the other seamen. 


MONARCH OF ALL HE SURVEYED. 169 


and which I carefully preserved, because many times 
I could bear no other clothes on but a shirt; and it 
was a very great help to me that I had, among all the 
men’s clothes of the ship, almost three dozen of 
shirts. There were also several thick watch-coats of 
the seamen’s which were left indeed, but they were 
too hot to wear; and though it is true that the 
weather was so violent hot that there was no need of 
clothes, yet I could not go quite naked, no, though I 
had been inclined to it, which I was not, nor could 
abide the thoughts of it, though I was all alone. 

The reason why I could not go quite naked was, I 
could not bear the heat of the sun so well when quite 
naked as with some clothes on; nay, the very heat 
frequently blistered my skin; whereas, with a shirt 
on, the air itself made some motion, and whistling 
under that shirt, was twofold cooler than without it. 
No more could I ever bring myself to go out in the 
heat of the sun without a cap or a hat. The heat of 
the sun beating with such violence, as it does in that 
place, would give me the headache presently, by 
darting so directly on my head, without a cap or hat 
on, so that I could not bear it; whereas, if I put on 
my hat, it would presently go away. 

Upon those views, I began to consider about put- 
ting the few rags I had, which I called clothes, into 
some order. I had worn out all the waistcoats I had, 
and my business was now to try if I could not make 
jackets out of the great watch-coats which I had by 
me, and with such other materials as I had ; so I set 
to work a-tailoring, or rather, indeed, a-botching, for 
I made most piteous work of it. However, I made 
shift to make two or three new waistcoats, which I 
hoped would serve me a great while. As for breeches 


170 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


or drawers, I made but a very sorry shift indeed till 
afterward. 

I have mentioned that I saved the skins of all the 
creatures that I killed, I mean four-footed ones, and 
I had hung them up stretched out with sticks in the 
sun, by which means some of them were so dry and 
hard that they were fit for little, but others it seems 
were very useful. The first thing I made of these 
was a great cap for my head, with the hair on the 
outside, to shoot off the rain; and this I performed 
so well, that after this I made me a suit of clothes 
wholly of these skins, that is to say, a waistcoat, and 
breeches open at knees, and both loose, for they were 
rather wanting to keep me cool than to keep me 
warm. I must not omit to acknowledge that they 
were wretchedly made ; for if I was a bad carpenter, 
I was a worse tailor. However, they were such as I 
made very good shift with ; and when I was abroad, 
if it happened to rain, the hair of my waistcoat and 
cap being outermost, I was kept very dry. 

After this I spent a great deal of time and pains to 
make me an umbrella. I was indeed in great want 
of one, and had a great mind to make one. I had 
seen them made in the Brazils, where they are very 
useful in the great heats which are there ; and I felt 
the heats every jot as great here, and greater too, 
being nearer the equinox. Besides, as I was obliged 
to be much abroad, it was a most useful thing to me, 
as well for the rains as the heats. I took a world of 
pains at it, and was a great while before I could make 
anything likely to hold; nay, after I thought I had 
hit the way, I spoiled two or three before I made one 
to my mind; but at last I made one that answered 
indifferently well. The main difficulty I found was 


MONARCH OF ALL HE SURVEYED, 171 


to make it to let down. I could make it to spread ; 
but if it did not let down too, and draw in, it was 
not portable for me any way but just over my head, 
which would not do. However, at last, as I said, I 
made one to answer, and covered it with skins, the 
hair upwards, so that it cast off the rains like a pent- 
house, and kept off the sun so effectually, that I 
could walk out in the hottest of the weather with 
greater advantage than I could before in the coolest; 
and when I had no need of it, could close it, and 
carry it under my arm. 


CHAPTER XV. 


A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 

Thus I lived mighty comfortably, my mind being 
entirely composed by resigning to the will of God, 
and throwing myself wholly upon the disposal of His 
providence. This made my life better than sociable; 
for when I began to regret the want of conversation, 
I would ask myself whether thus conversing mutually 
with my own thoughts and, as I hope I may say, with 
even God Himself, by ejaculations, was not better 
than the utmost enjoyment of human society in the 
world? 

I cannot say that after this, for five years, any 
extraordinary thing happened to me; but I lived on 
in the same course, in the same posture and place, 
just as before. The chief things I was employed in, 
besides my yearly labor of planting my barley and 
rice, and curing my raisins, of both which I always 
kept up just enough to have sufficient stock of one 
year’s provisions beforehand — I say, besides this 
yearly labor, and my daily labor of going out with 
my gun, I had one labor, to make me a canoe, which 
at last I finished ; so that by digging a canal to it of 
six feet wide, and four feet deep, I brought it into 
the creek, almost half a mile. As for the first, 
which was so vastly big, as I made it without consid- 
ering beforehand, as I ought to do, how I should be 
able to launch it; so, never being able to bring it to 


A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 


173 


the water, or bring the water to it, I was obliged to 
let it lie where it was, as a memorandum to teach me 
to be wiser next time. Indeed, the next time, though 
I could not get a tree proper for it, and in a place 
where I could not get the water to it at any less 
distance than, as I have said, near half a mile, yet 
as I saw it was practicable at last, I never gave it 
over ; and though I was near two years about it, yet 
I never grudged my labor, in hopes of having a boat 
to go off to sea at last. 

However, though my little periagua was finished, 
yet the size of it was not at all answerable to the 
design which I had in view when I made the first ; I 
mean, of venturing over to the terra jirma^ where it 
was above forty miles broad. Accordingly, the small- 
ness of my boat assisted to put an end to that design, 
and now I thought no more of it. But as I had a 
boat, my next design was to make a tour round the 
island; for as I had been on the other side in one 
place, crossing, as I have already described it, over 
the land, so the discoveries I made in that little jour- 
ney made me very eager to see other parts of the 
coast; and now I had a boat, I thought of nothing 
but sailing round the island. 

For this j)urpose, that I might do everything with 
discretion and consideration, I fitted up a little mast 
to my boat, and made a sail to it out of some of the 
pieces of the ship’s sail, which lay in store, and of 
which I had a great stock by me. 

Having fitted my mast and sail, and tried the boat, 
I found she would sail very well. Then I made little 
lockers, or boxes, at either end of my boat, to put 
provisions, necessaries, and ammunition, etc., into, 
to be kept dry, either from rain or the spray of the 


174 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


sea ; and a little long hollow place I cut in the inside 
of the boat, where I could lay my gun, making a flap 
to hang down over it to keep it dry. 

I fixed my umbrella also in a step at the stern, like 
a mast, to stand over my head, and keep the heat of 
the sun off of me, like an awning; and thus I every 
now and then took a little voyage upon the sea, but 
never went far out, nor far from the little creek. 
But at last, being eager to view the circumference of 
my little kingdom, I resolved upon my tour; and 
accordingly I victualled my ship for the voyage, put- 
ting in two dozen of my loaves (cakes I should rather 
call them) of barley bread, an earthen pot full of 
parched rice, a food I eat a great deal of, a little bot- 
tle of rum, half a goat, and powder and shot for kill- 
ing more, and two large watch-coats, of those which, 
as I mentioned before, I had saved out of the seamen’s 
chests; these I took, one to lie upon, and the other 
to cover me in the night. 

It was the 6th of November, in the sixth year of 
my reign, or my captivity, which you please, that I 
set out on this voyage, and I found it much longer 
than I expected; for though the island itself was not 
very large, yet when I came to the east side of it I 
found a great ledge of rocks lie out above two leagues 
into the sea, some above water, some under it, and 
beyond that a shoal of sand, lying dry half a league 
more ; so that I was obliged to go a great way out to 
sea to double the point. 

When first I discovered them, I was going to give 
over my enterprise, and come back again, not know- 
ing how far it might oblige me to go out to sea, and, 
above all, doubting how I should get back again, so 
I came to an anchor ; for I had made me a kind of 


A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 175 

an anchor with a piece of a broken grappling which 
I got out of the ship. 

Having secured my boat, I took my gun and went 
on shore, climbing up upon a hill, which seemed to 
overlook that point, where I saw the full extent of it, 
and resolved to venture. 

In my viewing the sea from that hill, where I 
stood, I perceived a strong, and indeed a most furious 
rurrent, which run to the east, and even came close 
to the point; and I took the more notice of it, because 
I saw there might be some danger that when I came 
into it I might be carried out to sea by the strength 
of it, and not be able to make the island again. And 
indeed, had I not gotten first up upon this hill, I 
believe it would have been so ; for there was the same 
current on the other side the island, only that it set 
off at a farther distance ; and I saw there was a strong 
eddy under the shore; so I had nothing to do but to 
get in out of the first current, and I should presently 
be in an eddy. 

I lay here, however, two days; because the wind, 
blowing pretty fresh at E. S. E., and that being just 
contrary to the said current, made a great breach of 
the sea upon the point; so that it was not safe for me 
to keep too close to the shore for the breach, nor to 
go too far off because of the stream. 

The third day, in the morning, the wind having 
abated overnight, the sea was calm, and I ventured. 
But I am a warning piece again to all rash and 
ignorant pilots; for no sooner was I come to the 
point, when even I was not my boat’s length from 
the shore, but I found myself in a great depth of 
water, and a current like the sluice of a mill. It 
carried my boat along with it with such violence that 


176 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


all I could do could not keep her so much as on the 
edge of it, but I found it hurried me farther and 
farther out from the eddy, which was on my left 
hand. There was no wind stirring to help me, and 
all I could do with my paddlers signified nothing. 
And now I began to give myself over for lost; for, 
as the current was on both sides the island, I knew 
in a few leagues’ distance they must join again, and 
then I was irrecoverably gone. Nor did I see any 
possibility of avoiding it; so that I had no prospect 
before me but of perishing ; not by the sea, for that 
was calm enough, but of starving for hunger. I had 
indeed found a tortoise on the shore, as big almost as 
I could lift, and had tossed it into the boat; and I 
had a great jar of fresh water, that is to say, one of 
my earthen pots; but what was all this to being 
driven into the vast ocean, where, to be sure, there 
was no shore, no mainland or island, for a thousand 
leagues at least? 

And now I saw how easy it was for the providence 
of God to make the most miserable condition man- 
kind could be in worse. Now I looked back upon 
my desolate solitary island as the most pleasant place 
in the world, and all the haj^piness my heart could 
wish for was to be but there again. I stretched out 
my hands to it, with eager wishes. “O happy des- 
ert! ” said I, “I shall never see thee more. O mis- 
erable creature,” said I, “whither am I going?” 
Then I reproached myself with my unthankful tem- 
per, and how I had repined at my solitary condition; 
and now what would I give to be on shore there 
again. Thus we never see the true state of our con- 
dition till it is illustrated to us by its contraries ; nor 
know how to value what we enjoy but by the want of 


A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 


177 


it. It is scarce possible to imagine the consterna- 
tion I was now in, being driven from my beloved 
island (for so it appeared to me now to be) into the 
wide ocean, almost two leagues, and in the utmost 
despair of ever recovering it again. However, I 
worked hard, till indeed my strength was almost 
exhausted, and kept my boat as much to the north- 
ward, that is, towards the side of the current which 
the eddy lay on, as possibly I could; when about 
noon, as the sun passed the meridian, I thought I 
felt a little breeze of wind in my face, springing up 
from the S. S. E. This cheered my heart a little, 
and especially when, in about half an hour more, it 
blew a pretty small gentle gale. By this time I was 
gotten at a frightful distance from the island; and 
had the least cloud or hazy weather intervened, I had 
been undone another way too ; for I had no compass 
on board, and should never have known how to have 
steered towards the island if I had but once lost sight 
of it. But the weather continuing clear, I applied 
myself to get up my mast again, and spread my sail, 
standing away to the north as much as possible, to 
get out of the current. 

Just as I had set my mast and sail, and the boat 
began to stretch away, I saw even by the clearness of 
the water some alteration of the current was^near; 
for where the current was so strong the water was 
foul. But perceiving the water clear, I found the 
current abate, and presently I found to the east, at 
about half a mile, a breach of the sea upon some 
rocks. These rocks I found caused the current to 
part again; and as the main stress of it ran away 
more southerly, leaving the rocks to the northeast, 
so the other returned by the repulse of the rocks, and 


178 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


made a strong eddy, which ran back again to the 
northwest with a very sharp stream. 

They who know what it is to have a reprieve 
brought to them upon the ladder, or to be rescued 
from thieves just going to murder them, or who have 
been in such like extremities, may guess what my 
present surprise of joy was, and how gladly I put my 
boat into the stream of this eddy; and the wind also 
freshening, how gladly I spread my sail to it, running 
cheerfully before the wind, and with a strong tide or 
eddy under foot. 

This eddy carried me about a league in my way 
back again, directly towards the island, but about 
two leagues more to the northward than the current 
which carried me away at first; so that when I came 
near the island, I found myself open to the northern 
shore of it, that is to say, the other end of the island, 
opposite to that which I went out from. 

When I had made something more than a league 
of way by the help of this current or eddy, I found 
it was spent, and served me no farther. However, I 
found that being between the two great currents, viz., 
that on the south side, which had hurried me away, 
and that on the north, which lay about a league on 
the other side ; I say, between these two, in the wake 
of the island, I found the water at least still, and run- 
ning no way ; and having still a breeze of wind fair 
for me, I kept on steering directly for the island, 
though not making such fresh way as I did before. 

About four o’clock in the evening, being then 
within about a league of the island, I found the point 
of the rocks which occasioned this disaster stretching 
out, as is described before, to the southward, and 
casting off the current more southwardly had, of 


A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 


179 


course, made another eddy to the north, and this I 
found very strong, but not directly setting the way 
my course lay, which was due west, but almost full 
north. However, having a fresh gale, I stretched 
across this eddy, slanting northwest; and in about 
an hour came within about a mile of the shore, where, 
it being smooth water, I soon got to land. 

When I was on shore, I fell on my knees, and 
gave God thanks for my deliverance, resolving to lay 
aside all thoughts of my deliverance by my boat ; and, 
refreshing myself with such things as I had, I brought 
my boat close to the shore, in a little cove that I had 
spied under some trees, and laid me down to sleep, 
being quite spent with the labor and fatigue of the 
voyage. 

I was now at a great loss which way to get home 
with my boat. I had run so much hazard, and knew 
too much the case, to think of attempting it by the 
way I went out; and what might be at the other side 
(I mean the west side) I knew not, nor had I any 
mind to run any more ventures. So I only resolved 
in the morning to make my way westward along the 
shore, and to see if there was no creek where I might 
lay up my frigate in safety, so as to have her again 
if I wanted her. In about three miles, or there- 
abouts, coasting the shore, I came to a very good 
inlet or bay, about a mile over, which narrowed till 
it came to a very little rivulet or brook, where I 
found a very convenient harbor for my boat, and 
where she lay as if she had been in a little dock made 
on purpose for her. Here I put in, and having 
stowed my boat very safe, I went on shore to look 
about me, and see where I was. 

I soon found I had but a little passed by the place 


180 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


where I had been before, when I travelled on foot to 
that shore ; so taking nothing out of my boat but my 
gun and my umbrella, for it was exceedingly hot, I 
began my march. The way was comfortable enough 
after such a voyage as I had been upon, and I reached 
my old bower in the evening, where I found every- 
thing standing as I left it; for I always kept it in 
good order, being, as I said before, my county house. 

I got over the fence, and laid me down in the shade 
to rest my limbs, for I was very weary, and fell 
asleep. But judge you, if you can, that read my 
story, what a surprise I must be in, when I was 
waked out of my sleep by a voice calling me by my 
name several times, ‘‘Eobin, Kobin, Kobin Crusoe, 
poor Kobin Crusoe! Where are you, Kobin Crusoe? 
Where are you? Where have you been?’’ 

I was so dead asleep at first, being fatigued with 
rowing, or paddling, as it is called, the first part of 
the day, and with walking the latter part, that I did 
not wake thoroughly; but dozing between sleeping 
and waking, thought I dreamed that somebody spoke 
to me. But as the voice continued to repeat “Kobin 
Crusoe, Kobin Crusoe,” at last I began to wake more 
perfectly, and was at first dreadfully frighted, and 
started up in the utmost consternation. But no 
sooner were my eyes open but I saw my Poll sitting 
on the top of the hedge, and immediately knew that 
it was he that spoke to me ; for just in such bemoan- 
ing language I had used to talk to him, and teach 
him ; and he had learned it so perfectly that he would 
sit upon my finger, and lay his bill close to my face, 
and cry, “Poor Kobin Crusoe! Where are you? 
Where have you been? How come you here ? ” and 
such things as I had taught him. 


A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 


181 


However, even though I knew it was the parrot, 
and that indeed it could be nobody else, it was a good 
while before I could compose myself. First, I was 
amazed how the creature got thither, and then, how 
he should just keep about the place, and nowhere 
else. But as I was well satisfied it could be nobody 
but honest Poll, I got it over; and holding out my 
hand, and calling him by his name. Poll, the sociable 
creature came to me, and sat upon my thumb, as he 
used to do, and continued talking to me, — Poor Robin 
Crusoe ! and how did I come here ? and where had I 
been? — just as if he had been overjoyed to see me 
again ; and so I carried him home along with me. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


HIS ANIMAL KINGDOM. 

I HAD now had enough of rambling to sea for some 
time, and had enough to do for many days to sit still, 
and reflect upon the danger I had been in. I would 
have been very glad to have had my boat again on 
my side of the island; but I knew not how it was 
practicable to get it about. As to the east side of 
the island, which I had gone round, I knew well 
enough there was no venturing that way; my very 
heart would shrink, and my very blood run chill, but 
to think of it. And as to the other side of the island, 
I did not know how it might be there ; but supposing 
the current ran with the same force against the shore 
at the east as it passed by it on the other, I might 
run the same risk of being driven down the stream, 
and carried by the island, as I had been before of 
being carried away from it. So, with these thoughts, 
I contented myself to be without any boat, though it 
had been the product of so many months’ labor to 
make it, and of so many more to get it unto the sea. 

In this government of my temper I remained near 
a year, lived a very sedate, retired life, as you may 
well suppose ; and my thoughts being very much 
composed as to my condition, and fully comforted in 
resigning myself to the dispositions of Providence, I 
thought I lived really very happily in all things, 
except that of society. 


HIS ANIMAL KINGDOM, 


183 


I improved myself in this time in all the mechanic 
exercises which my necessities put me upon applying 
myself to, and I believe could, upon occasion, make 
a very good carpenter, especially considering how few 
tools I had. Besides this, I arrived at an unexpected 
perfection in my earthenware, and contrived well 
enough ‘to make them with a wheel, which I found 
infinitely easier and better, because I made things 
round and shapable which before were filthy things 
indeed to look on. But I think I was never more 
vain of my own performance, or more joyful for any- 
thing I found out, than for my being able to make 
a tobacco-pipe. And though it was a very ugly 
clumsy thing when it was done, and only burnt red, 
like other earthenware, yet as it was hard and firm, 
and would draw the smoke, I was exceedingly com- 
forted with it ; for I had been always used to smoke, 
and there were pipes in the ship, but I forgot them 
at first, not knowing that there was tobacco in the 
island; and afterwards, when I searched the ship 
again, I could not come at any pipes at all. 

In my wicker ware also I improved much, and 
made abundance of necessary baskets, as well as my 
invention showed me; though not very handsome, 
yet they were such as were very handy and conven- 
ient for my laying things up in, or fetching things 
home in. For example, if I killed a goat abroad, I 
could hang it up in a tree, flay it, and dress it, and 
cut it in pieces, and bring it home in a basket ; and 
the like by a turtle ; I could cut it up, take out the 
eggs, and a piece or two of the flesh, which was 
enough for me, and bring them home in a basket, 
and leave the rest behind me. Also large deep bas- 
kets were my receivers for my corn, which I always 


184 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


rubbed out as soon as it was dry, and cured, and kept 
it in great baskets. 

I began now to perceive my powder abated consid- 
erably, and this was a want which it was impossible 
for me to supply, and I began seriously to consider 
what I must do when I should have no more powder; 
that is to say, how I should do to kill any gf)ats. I 
had, as is observed, in the third year of my being 
here kept a young kid, and bred her up tame, and I 
was in hope of getting a he goat. But I could not 
by any means bring it to pass, till my kid grew an 
old goat; and I could never find in my heart to kill 
her, till she died at last of mere age. 

But being now in the eleventh year of my residence, 
and, as I have said, my ammunition growing low, I 
set myself to study some art to trap and snare the 
goats, to see whether I could not catch some of them 
alive ; and particularly, I wanted a she goat great 
with young. 

To this purpose, I made snares to hamper them, 
and I do believe they were more than once taken in 
them ; but my tackle was not good, for I had no wire, 
and I always found them broken, and my bait de- 
voured. At length I resolved to try a pitfall; so I 
dug several large pits in the earth, in places where 
I had observed the goats used to feed, and over these 
pits I placed hurdles, of my own making too, with a 
great weight upon them; and several times I put 
ears of barley and dry rice, without setting the trap, 
and I could easily perceive that the goats had gone 
in and eaten up the corn, for I could see the mark of 
their feet. At length I set three traps in one night, 
and going the next morning, I found them all stand- 
ing, and yet the bait eaten and gone ; this was very 


HIS ANIMAL KINGDOM, 


185 


discouraging. However, I altered my trap; and, 
not to trouble you with particulars, going one morn- 
ing to see my trap, I found in one of them a large 
old he goat, and in one of the other three kids, a 
male and two females. 

As to the old one, I knew not what to do with him, 
he was so fierce I durst not go into the pit to him; 
that is to say, to go about to bring him away alive, 
which was what I wanted. I could have killed him, 
but that was not my business, nor would it answer 
my end; so I even let him out, and he ran away, as 
if he had been frighted out of his wits. But I had 
forgot then what 1 learned afterwards, that hunger 
will tame a lion. If I had let him stay there three 
or four days without food, and then have carried him 
some water to drink, and then a little corn, he would 
have been as tame as one of the kids, for they are 
mighty sagacious, tractable creatures where they are 
well used. 

However, for the present I let him go, knowing 
no better at that time. Then I went to the three 
kids, and taking them one by one, I tied them with 
strings together, and with some difficulty brought 
them all home. 

It was a good while before they would feed, but 
throwing them some sweet corn, it tempted them, 
and they began to be tame. And now I found that 
if I expected to supply myself with goat-flesh when 
I had no powder or shot left, breeding some up tame 
was my only way, when perhaps I might have them 
about my house like a flock of sheep. 

But then it presently occurred to me that I must 
keep the tame from the wild, or else they would 
always run wild when they grew up; and the only 


186 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


way for this was to have some enclosed piece of 
ground, well fenced either with hedge or pale, to 
keep them in so effectually that those within might 
not break out, or those without break in. 

This was a great undertaking for one pair of hands ; 
yet as I saw there was an absolute necessity of doing 
it, my first piece of work was to find out a proper 
piece of ground, viz., where there was likely to be 
herbage for them to eat, water for them to drink, 
and cover to keep them from the sun. 

Those who understand such enclosures will think 
I had very little contrivance when I pitched upon a 
place very proper for all these, being a plain open 
piece of meadow land, or savanna (as our people call 
it in the western colonies), which had two or three 
little drills of fresh water in it, and at one end was 
very woody; I say, they will smile at my forecast, 
when I shall tell them I began my enclosing of this 
piece of ground in such a manner that my hedge or 
pale must have been at least two miles about. Nor 
was the madness of it so great as to the compass, for 
if it was ten miles about, I was like to have time 
enough to do it in. But I did not consider that my 
goats would be as wild in so much compass as if they 
had had the whole island, and I should have so much 
room to chase them in that I should never catch them. 

My hedge was begun and carried on, I believe, 
about fifty yards, when this thought occurred to me, 
so I presently stopped short, and, for the first begin- 
ning, I resolved to enclose a piece of about one hun- 
dred and fifty yards in length, and one hundred yards 
in breadth; which, as it would maintain as many as 
I should have in any reasonable time, so, as my flock 
increased, I could add more ground to my enclosure. 


HIS ANIMAL KINGDOM. 


187 


This was acting with some prudence, and I went to 
work with courage. I was about three months hedg- 
ing in the first piece, and, till I had done it, I teth- 
ered the three kids in the best part of it, and used 
them to feed as near me as possible, to make them 
familiar; and very often I would go and carry them 
some ears of barley, or a handful of rice, and feed 
them out of my hand ; so that after my enclosure was 
finished, and I let them loose, they would follow me 
up and down, bleating after me for a handful of corn. 

This answered my end, and in about a year and 
half I had a flock of about twelve goats, kids and 
all; and in two years more I had three and forty, 
besides several that I took and killed for my food. 
And after that I enclosed five several pieces of ground 
to feed them in, with little pens to drive them into, 
to take them as I wanted, and gates out of one piece 
of ground into another. 

But this was not all, for now I not only had goat’s 
flesh to feed on when I pleased, but milk too, a thing 
which, indeed, in my beginning, I did not so much 
as think of, and which, when it came into my 
thoughts, was really an agreeable surprise. For now 
I set up my dairy, and had sometimes a gallon or two 
of milk* in a day; and as Nature, who gives supplies 
of food to every creature, dictates even naturally 
how to make use of it, so I that had never milked 
a cow, much less a goat, or seen butter or cheese 
made, very readily and handily, though after a great 
many essays and miscarriages, made me both butter 
and cheese at last, and never wanted it afterwards. 

How mercifully can our great Creator treat His 
creatures, even in those conditions in which they 
seemed to be overwhelmed in destruction ! How can 


188 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


He sweeten the bitterest providences, and give ns 
cause to praise Him for dungeons and prisons ! What 
a table was here spread for me in a wilderness where 
I saw nothing at first but to perish for hunger ! 

It would have made a stoic smile to have seen me 
and my little family sit down to dinner. There was 
my majesty, the prince and lord of the whole island. 
I had the lives of all my subjects at my absolute 
command. I could hang, draw, give liberty, and 
take it away; and no rebels among all my subjects. 

Then to see how like a king I dined, too, all alone, 
attended by my servants. Poll, as if he had been my 
favorite, was the only person permitted to talk to me. 
My dog, who was now grown very old and crazy, and 
had found no sj)ecies to multiply his kind upon, sat 
always at my right hand, and two cats, one on one 
side the table, and one on the other, expecting now 
and then a bit from my hand, as a mark of special 
favor. 

But these were not the two cats which I brought 
on shore at first, for they were both of them dead, 
and had been interred near my habitation, by my 
own hand. But one of them having multiplied by I 
know not what kind of creature, these were two which 
I had preserved tame, whereas the rest run wild in 
the woods, and became indeed troublesome to me at 
last; for they would often come into my house, and 
plunder me too, till at last I was obliged to shoot 
them, and did kill a great many; at length they left 
me. With this attendance, and in this plentiful 
manner, I lived ; neither could I be said to want any- 
thing but society ; and of that, in some time after this, 
I was like to have too much. 


CHAPTER XVII. 


THE FOOTPRINT. 

I WAS something impatient, as I have observed, to 
have the use of my boat, though very loath to run any 
more hazards ; and therefore sometimes I sat contriv- 
ing ways to get her about the island, and at other 
times I sat myself down contented enough without 
her. But I had a strange uneasiness in my mind to 
go down to the point of the island where, as I have 
said, in my last ramble, I went up the hill to see how 
the shore lay, and how the current set, that I might 
see what I had to do. This inclination increased 
upon me every day, and at length I resolved to travel 
thither by land, following the edge of the shore. I 
did so; but had any one in England been to meet 
such a man as I was, it must either have frighted 
them, or raised a great deal of laughter; and as I 
frequently stood still to look at myself, I could not 
but smile at the notion of my travelling through 
Yorkshire, with such an equipage, and in such a 
dress. Be pleased to take a sketch of my figure, as 
follows. 

I had a great high shapeless cap, made of a goat’s 
skin, with a fiap hanging down behind, as well to 
keep the sun from me, as to shoot the rain off from 
running into my neck; nothing being so hurtful in 
these climates as the rain upon the fiesh, under the 
clothes. 


190 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


I had a short jacket of goat skin, the skirts coming 
down to about the middle of my thighs; and a pair 
of open-kneed breeches of the same. The breeches 
were made of the skin of an old he goat, whose hair 
hung down such a length on either side, that, like 
pantaloons, it reached to the middle of my legs. 
Stockings and shoes I had none, but had made me a 
pair of somethings, I scarce know what to call them, 
like buskins, to flap over my legs, and lace on either 
side like spatterdashes; but of a most barbarous 
shape, as indeed were all the rest of my clothes. 

I had on a broad belt of goat’s skin dried, which 
I drew together with two thongs of the same, instead 
of buckles ; and in a kind of a frog on either side of 
this, instead of a sword and a dagger, hung a little 
saw and a hatchet, one on one side, one on the other. 
I had another belt, not so broad, and fastened in the 
same manner, which hung over my shoulder; and at 
the end of it, under my left arm, hung two pouches, 
both made of goat’s skin too; in one of which hung 
my powder, in the other my shot. At my back I 
carried my basket, on my shoulder my gun, and over 
my head a great clumsy ugly goat-skin umbrella, 
but which, after all, was the most necessary thing I 
had about me, next to my gun. As for my face, the 
color of it was really not so mulatto-like as one might 
expect from a man not at all careful of it, and living 
within nineteen degrees of the equinox. My beard 
I had once suffered to grow till it was about a quarter 
of a yard long ; but as I had both scissors and razors 
sufficient, I had cut it pretty short, except what grew 
on my upper lip, which I had trimmed into a large 
pair of Mahometan whiskers, such as I had seen 
worn by some Turks whom I saw at Sallee; for the 


THE FOOTPRINT. 


191 


Moors did not wear such, though the Turks did. Of 
these mustachios or whiskers, I will not say they 
were long enough to hang my hat upon them, hut 
they were of a length and shape monstrous enough, 
and such as, in England, would have passed for 
frightful. 

But all this is by the bye; for as to my figure I 
had so few to observe me that it was of no manner 
of consequence; so I say no more to that part. In 
this kind of figure I went m}^^ new journey, and was 
out five or six days. I travelled first along the sea- 
shore, directly to the place where I first brought my 
boat to an anchor, to get up upon the rocks. And 
having no boat now to take care of, I went over the 
land, a nearer way, to the same height that I was 
upon before; when, looking forward to the point of 
the rocks which lay out, and which I was obliged to 
double with my boat, as is said above, I was sur- 
prised to see the sea all smooth and quiet, no rip- 
pling, no motion, no current, any more there than 
in other places. 

I was at a strange loss to understand this, and 
resolved to spend some time in the observing it, to 
see if nothing from the sets of the tide had occasioned 
it. But I was presently convinced how it was, viz., 
that the tide of ebb setting from the west, and join- 
ing with the current of waters from some great river 
on the shore, must be the occasion of this current; 
and that according as the wind blew more forcibly 
from the west, or from the north, this current came 
near, or went farther from the shore; for waiting 
thereabouts till evening, I went up to the rock again, 
and then the tide of ebb being made, I plainly saw 
the current again as before, only that it run farther 


192 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


off, being near half a league from the shore ; whereas 
in my case it set close upon the shore, and hurried 
me and my canoe along with it, which, at another 
time, it would not have done. 

This observation convinced me that I had nothing 
to do but to observe the ebbing and the flowing of 
the tide, and I might very easily bring my boat about 
the island again. But when I began to think of 
putting it in practice, I had such a terror upon my 
spirits at the remembrance of the danger I had been 
in that I could not think of it again with any pa- 
tience ; but, on the contrary, I took up another reso- 
lution, which was more safe, though more laborious ; 
and this was, that I would build, or rather make me 
another 'periacjua or canoe ; and so have one for one 
side of the island, and one for the other. 

You are to understand that now I had, as I may 
call it, two plantations in the island; one, my little 
fortification or tent, with the wall about it, under the 
rock, with the cave behind me, which, by this time, 
I had enlarged into several apartments or caves, one 
within another. One of these, which was the driest 
and largest, and had a door out beyond my wall or 
fortification, that is to say, beyond where my wall 
joined to the rock, was all filled up with the large 
earthen pots, of which I have given an account, and 
with fourteen or fifteen great baskets, which would 
hold five or six bushels each, where I laid up my 
stores of provision, especially my corn, some in the 
ear, cut off short from the straw, and the other rubbed 
out with my hand. 

As for my wall, made, as before, with long stakes 
or piles, those piles grew all like trees, and were by 
this time grown so big, and spread so very much, that 


THE FOOTPRINT. 193 

there was not the least appearance, to any one’s view, 
of any habitation behind them. 

Near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther 
within the land, and upon lower ground, lay my two 
pieces of corn ground, which I kept duly cultivated 
and sowed, and which duly yielded me their harvest 
in its season; and whenever I had occasion for more 
corn, I had more land adjoining as fit as that. 

Besides this, I had my country seat, and I had 
now a tolerable plantation there also; for, first, I 
had my little bower, as I called it, which I kept in 
repair; that is to say, I kept the hedge which circled 
it in constantly fitted up to its usual height, the lad- 
der standing always in the inside. I kept the trees, 
which at first were no more than my stakes, but were 
now grown very firm and tall, I kept them always so 
cut that they might spread and grow thick and wild, 
and make the more agreeable shade, which they did 
effectually to my mind. In the middle of this, I had 
my tent always standing, being a piece of a sail spread 
over poles, set up for that purpose, and which never 
wanted any repair or renewing ; and under this I had 
made me a squab or couch, with the skins of the 
creatures I had killed, and with other soft things, 
and a blanket laid on them, such as belonged to our 
sea-bedding, which I had saved, and a great watch- 
coat to cover me ; and here, whenever I had occasion 
to be absent from my chief seat, I took up my coun- 
try habitation. 

Adjoining to this I had my enclosures for my cat- 
tle, that is to say, ihy goats. And as I had taken an 
inconceivable deal of pains to fence and enclose this 
ground, so I was so uneasy to see it kept entire, lest 
the goats should break through, that I never left ojBE 


194 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


till, with infinite labor, I had stuck the outside of 
the hedge so full of small stakes, and so near to one 
another, that it was rather a pale than a hedge, and 
there was scarce room to put a hand through between 
them; which afterwards, when those stakes grew, as 
they all did in the next rainy season, made the enclo- 
sure strong like a wall, indeed, stronger than any 
wall. 

This will testify for me that I was not idle, and 
that I spared no pains to bring to pass whatever ap- 
peared necessary for my comfortable support; for I 
considered the keeping up a breed of tame creatures 
thus at my hand would be a living magazine of flesh, 
milk, butter, and cheese for me as long as I lived in 
the place, if it were to be forty years ; and that keep- 
ing them in my reach depended entirely upon my 
perfecting my enclosures to such a degree that I 
might be sure of keeping them together; which, by 
this method, indeed, I so effectually secured that 
when these little stakes began to grow, I had planted 
them so very thick I was forced to pull some of 
them up again. 

In this place also I had my grapes growing, which 
I principally depended on for my winter store of 
raisins, and which I never failed to preserve very 
carefully, as the best and most agreeable dainty of 
my whole diet. And indeed they were not agreeable 
only, but physical, wholesome, nourishing, and re- 
freshing to the last degree. 

As this was also about halfway between my other 
habitation and the place where I had laid up my 
boat, I generally stayed and lay here in my way 
thither; for I used frequently to visit my boat, and 
I kept all things about or belonging to her in very 


THE FOOTPRINT. 


195 


good order. Sometimes I went out in her to divert 
myself, but no more hazardous voyages would I go, 
nor scarce ever above a stone’s cast or two from the 
shore, I was so apprehensive of being hurried out of 
my knowledge again by the currents or winds, or any 
other accident. But now I come to a new scene of 
my life. 

It happened one day, about noon, going towards 
my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print 
of a man’s naked foot on the shore, which was very 
plain to be seen in the sand. I stood like one thun- 
derstruck, or as if I had seen an apparition. I lis- 
tened, I looked round me, I could hear nothing, nor 
see anything. I went up to a rising ground, to look 
farther. I went up the shore, and down the shore, 
but it was all one; I could see no other impression 
but that one. I went to it again to see if there were 
any more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy; 
but there was no room for that, for there was exactly 
the very print of a foot — toes, heel, and every part 
of a foot. How it came thither I knew not, nor could 
in the least imagine. But after innumerable flutter- 
ing thoughts, like a man perfectly confused and out 
of myself, I came home to my fortification, not feel- 
ing, as we say, the ground I went on, but terrified to 
the last degree, looking behind me at every two or 
three steps, mistaking every bush and tree, and fancy- 
ing every stump at a distance to be a man; nor is 
it possible to describe how many various shapes af- 
frighted imagination represented things to me in, 
how many wild ideas were found every moment in my 
fancy, and what strange unaccountable whimsies came 
into my thoughts by the way. 

When I came to my castle, for so I think I called 


196 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


it ever after this, I fled into it like one pursued. 
Whether I went over by the ladder, as first contrived, 
or went in at the hole in the rock, which I called a 
door, I cannot remember; no, nor could I remember 
the next morning, for never frighted hare fled to 
cover, or fox to earth, with more terror of mind than 
I to this retreat. 

I slept none that night. The farther I was from 
the occasion of my fright, the greater my apprehen- 
sions were ; which is something contrary to the nature 
of such things, and especially to the usual practice of 
all creatures in fear. But I was so embarrassed with 
my own frightful ideas of the thing, that I formed 
nothing but dismal imaginations to myself, even 
though I was now a great way off it. Sometimes I 
fancied it must be the devil, and reason joined in 
with me upon this supposition; for how should any 
other thing in human shape come into the place? 
Where was the vessel that brought them ? What 
marks was there of any other footsteps? And how 
was it possible a man should come there ? But then 
to think that Satan should take human shape upon 
him in such a place, where there could be no manner 
of occasion for it, but to leave the print of his foot 
behind him, and that even for no purpose too, for he 
could not be sure I should see it; this was an amuse- 
ment the other way. I considered that the devil 
might have found out abundance of other ways to 
have terrified me than this of the single print of a 
foot; that as I lived quite on the other side of the 
island, he would never have been so simple to leave 
a mark in a place where it was ten thousand to one 
whether I should ever see it or not, and in the sand 
too, which the first surge of the sea, uj)on a high 


THE FOOTPRINT, 


197 


wind, would have defaced entirely. All this seemed 
inconsistent with the thing itself, and with all the 
notions we usually entertain of the subtilty of the devil. 

Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue 
me out of all apprehensions of its being the devil; 
and I presently concluded, then, that it must be some 
more dangerous creature, viz., that it must be some 
of the savages of the mainland over against me, who 
had wandered out to sea in their canoes, and, either 
driven by the currents or by contrary winds, had 
made the island, and had been on shore, but w;ere 
gone away again to sea, being as loath, perhaps, to 
have stayed in this desolate island as I would have 
been to have had them. 

While these reflections were rolling upon my mind, 
I was very thankful in my thoughts that I was so 
happy as not to be thereabouts at that time, or that 
they did not see my boat, by which they would have 
con<?luded that some inhabitants had been in the 
place, and perhaps have searched farther for ine. 
Then terrible thoughts racked my imagination about 
their having found my boat, and that there were 
people here ; and that if so, I should certainly have 
them come again in greater numbers, and devour me ; 
that if it should happen so that they should not find 
me, yet they would find my enclosure, destroy all my 
corn, carry away all my flock of tame goats, and I 
should perish at last for mere want. 

Thus my fear banished all my religious hope. All 
that former confidence in God, which was founded 
upon such wonderful experience as I had had of His 
goodness, now vanished, as if He that had fed me by 
miracle hitherto could not preserve, by His power, 
the provision which He had made for me by His 


198 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


goodness. I reproached myself with my easiness, 
that would not sow any more corn one year than 
would just serve me till the next season, as if no acci- 
dent could intervene to prevent my enjoying the crop 
that was upon the ground. And this I thought so 
just a reproof that I resolved for the future to have 
two or three years’ corn beforehand, so that, whatever 
might come, I might not perish for want of bread. 

How strange a chequer work of Providence is the 
life of man ! and by what secret differing springs are 
the affections hurried about as differing circumstances 
present! To-day we love what to-morrow we hate; 
to-day we seek what to-morrow we shun ; to-day we 
desire what to-morrow we fear; nay, even tremble at 
the apprehensions of. This was exemplified in me, 
at this time, in the most lively manner imaginable; 
for I, whose only affliction was that I seemed banished 
from human society, that I was alone, circumscribed 
by the boundless ocean, cut off from mankind, and 
condemned to what I called silent life; that I was as 
one whom Heaven thought not worthy to be numbered 
among the living, or to appear among the rest of His 
creatures ; that to have seen one of my own species 
would have seemed to me a raising me from death to 
life, and the greatest blessing that Heaven itself, next 
to the supreme blessing of salvation, could bestow; 
I say, that I should now tremble at the very apprehen- 
sions of seeing a man, and was ready to sink into the 
ground at but the shadow or silent appearance of 
a man’s having set his foot in the island! 

Such is the uneven state of human life; and it 
afforded me a great many curious speculations after- 
wards, when I had a little recovered my first surprise. 
I considered that this was the station of life the in- 


THE FOOTPRINT. 


199 


finitely wise and good providenco of God had deter- 
mined for me ; that, as I could not foresee what the 
ends of Divine wisdom might be in all this, so I was 
not to dispute His sovereignty, who, as I was His 
creature, had an undoubted right, by creation, to 
govern and dispose of me absolutely as He thought 
fit, and who, as I was a creature who had offended 
Him, had likewise a judicial right to condemn me to 
what punishment He thought fit; and that it was my 
part to submit to bear His indignation, because I 
had sinned against Him. 

I then reflected that God, who was not only right- 
eous, but omnipotent, as He had thought fit thus to 
punish and afflict me, so He was able to deliver me; 
that if He did not think fit to do it, ’t was my unques- 
tioned duty to resign myself absolutely and entirely to 
His will; and, on the other hand, it was my duty also 
to hope in Him, pray to Him, and quietly to attend 
the dictates and directions of His daily providence. 

These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, 
I may say, weeks and months; and one particular 
effect of my cogitations on this occasion I cannot 
omit, viz., one morning early, lying in my bed, and 
filled with thought about my danger from the appear- 
ance of savages, I found it discomposed me very 
much; upon which those words of the Scripture came 
into my thoughts, “ Call upon Me in the day of trou- 
ble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify 
Me.’’ 

Upon this, rising cheerfully out of my bed, my 
heart was not only comforted, but I was guided and 
encouraged to pray earnestly to God for deliverance. 
When I had done praying, I took up my Bible, and 
opening it to read, the first words that presented to 


200 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


me were, “Wait on the Lord, and be of good cheer, 
and He shall strengthen thy heart; wait, I say, on 
the Lord.” It is impossible to express the comfort 
this gave me. In answer, I thankfully laid down the 
book, and was no more sad, at least, not on that 
occasion. 

In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, 
and reflections, it came into my thought one day that 
all this might be a mere chimera of my own; and 
that this foot might be the print of my own foot, 
when I came on shore from my boat. This cheered 
me up a little too, and I began to persuade myself it 
was all a delusion, that it was nothing else but my 
own foot; and why might not I come that way from 
the boat, as well as I was going that way to the boat? 
Again, I considered also that I could by no means 
tell, for certain, where I had trod, and where I had 
not; and that if, at last, this was only the print of 
my own foot, I had played the part of those fools 
who strive to make stories of spectres and apparitions, 
and then are frighted at them more than anybody. 

Now I began to take courage, and to peep abroad 
again, for I had not stirred out of my castle for three 
days and nights, so that I began to starve for provi- 
sion; for I had little or nothing within doors but 
some barley-cakes and water. Then I knew that my 
goats wanted to be milked too, which usually was my 
evening diversion; and the poor creatures were in 
great pain and inconvenience for want of it; and, 
indeed, it almost spoiled some of them, and almost 
dried up their milk. 

. Heartening myself, therefore, with the belief that 
this was nothing but the print of one of my own feet, 
and so I might be truly said to start at my own 


THE FOOTPRINT. 


201 


shadow, I began to go abroad again, and went to my 
country house to milk my flock. But to see with 
what fear I went forward, how often I looked behind 
me, how I was ready, every now and then, to lay 
down my basket, and run for my life, it would have 
made any one have thought I was haunted with an 
evil conscience, or that I had been lately most terribly 
frighted; and so, indeed, I had. 

However, as I went down thus two or three days, 
and having seen nothing, I began to be a little bolder, 
and to think there was really nothing in it but my 
own imagination. But I could not persuade myself 
fully of this till I should go down to the shore again, 
and see this print of a foot, and measure it by my 
own, and see if there was any similitude or fitness, 
that I might be assured it was my own foot. But 
when I came to the place, first, it appeared evidently 
to me that when I laid up my boat, I could not pos- 
sibly be on shore anywhere thereabout; secondly, 
when I came to measure the mark with my own foot, 
I found my foot not so large by a great deal. Both 
these things filled my head with new imaginations, 
and gave me the vapors again to the highest degree ; 
so that I shook with cold, like one in an ague; and 
I went home again, filled with the belief that some 
man or men had been on shore there; or, in short, 
that the island was inhabited, and I might be sur- 
prised before I was aware. And what course to take 
for my security, I knew not. 

Oh, what ridiculous resolution men take when pos- 
sessed with fear! It deprives them of the use of 
those means which reason offers for their relief. The 
first thing I proposed to myself was to throw down 
my enclosures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into 


202 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


the woods, that the enemy might not find them, and 
then frequent the island in prospect of the same or 
the like booty; then to the simple thing of digging 
up my two corn-fields, that they might not find such 
a grain there, and still be prompted to frequent the 
island ; then to demolish my bower and tent, that they 
might not see any vestiges of habitation, and be 
prompted to look farther, in order to find out the 
persons inhabiting. 

These were the subject of the first night’s cogita- 
tion, after I was come home again, while the a]3pre- 
hensions which had so overrun my mind were fresh 
upon me, and my head was full of vapors, as above. 
Thus fear of danger is ten thousand times more terri- 
fying than danger itself when apparent to the eyes; 
and we find the burthen of anxiety greater, by much, 
than the evil which we are anxious about; and, which 
was worse than all this, I had not that relief in this 
trouble from the resignation I used to practise that I 
hoped to have. I looked, I thought, like Saul, who 
complained not only that the Philistines were upon 
him, but that God had forsaken him ; for I did not 
now take due ways to com]30se my mind, by crying to 
God in my distress, and resting upon His providence, 
as I had done before, for my defence and deliverance ; 
which, if I had done, I had at least been more cheer- 
fully supported under this new surprise, and perhaps 
carried through it with more resolution. 

This confusion of my thoughts kept me waking all 
night, but in the morning I fell asleep; and having, 
by the amusement^ of my mind, been, as it were, 

^ See also the use of the word on page 196. Before the word 
came to have its present meaning, it signified ‘‘ mental abstrac- 
tion,” ‘‘ musing,” in fact ; and in both these cases that meaning 
seems to hold. 


V 


THE FOOTPRINT. 


203 


tired, and my spirits exhausted, I slept very soundly, 
and waked much better composed than I had ever 
been before. And now I began to think sedately; 
and upon the utmost debate with myself, I concluded 
that this island, which was so exceeding pleasant, 
fruitful, and no farther from the mainland than as 
I had seen, was not so entirely abandoned as I might 
imagine ; that although there were no stated inhabi- 
tants who lived on the spot, yet that there might 
sometimes come boats off from the shore, who, either 
with design, or perhaps never but when they were 
driven by cross winds, might come to this place ; that 
I had lived here fifteen years now, and had not met 
with the least shadow or figure of any people yet; 
and that if at any time they should be driven here, it 
was probable they went away again as soon as ever 
they could, seeing they had never thought fit to fix 
there upon any occasion to this time ; that the most 
I could suggest any danger from, was from any such 
casual accidental landing of straggling people from 
the main, who, as it was likely, if they were driven 
hither, were here against their wills; so they made 
no stay here, but went off again with all possible 
speed, seldom staying one night on shore, lest they 
should not have the help of the tides and daylight 
back again; and that, therefore, I had nothing to do 
but to consider of some safe retreat, in case I should 
see any savages land upon the spot. 


CHAPTER XVIIL 


THE FORTIFICATION. 

Now I began sorely to repent that I had dug my 
cave so large as to bring a door through again, which 
door, as I said, came out beyond where my fortifica- 
tion joined to the rock. Upon maturely considering 
this, therefore, I resolved to draw me a second forti- 
fication, in the same manner of a semicircle, at a dis- 
tance from my wall just where I had planted a 
double row of trees about twelve years before, of 
which I made mention. These trees having been 
planted so thick before, they wanted but a few piles 
to be driven between them, that they should be 
thicker and stronger, and my wall would be soon 
finished. 

So that I had now a double wall; and my outer 
wall was thickened with pieces of timber, old cables, 
and everything I could think of, to make it strong, 
having in it seven little holes about as big as I might 
put my arm out at. In the inside of this I thickened 
my wall to above ten feet thick, with continual bring- 
ing earth out of my cave, and laying it at the foot of 
the wall, and walking upon it ; and through the seven 
holes I contrived to plant the muskets, of which I 
took notice that I got seven on shore out of the ship. 
These, I say, I planted like my cannon, and fitted 
them into frames, that held them like a carriage, that 
so I could fire all the seven guns in two minutes’ 


THE FORTIFICATION. 


205 


time. This wall I was many a weary month a-finish- 
ing, and yet never thought myself safe till it was done. 

When this was done, I stuck all the ground with- 
out my wall, for a great way every way, as full with 
stakes, or sticks, of the osier-like wood, which I 
found so apt to grow, as they could well stand; inso- 
much, that I believe I might set in near twenty thou- 
sand of them, leaving a pretty large space between 
them and my wall, that I might have room to see an 
enemy, and they might have no shelter from the 
young trees, if they attempted to approach my outer 
wall. 

Thus in two years’ time I had a thick grove; and 
in five or six years’ time I had a wood before my 
dwelling, growing so monstrous thick and strong 
that it was indeed perfectly impassable ; and no men, 
of what kind soever,, would ever imagine that there 
was anything beyond it, much less a habitation. As 
for the way which I proposed to myself to go in and 
out, for I left no avenue, it was by setting two lad- 
ders, one to a part of the rock which was low, and 
then broke in, and left room to place another ladder 
upon that ; so when the two ladders were taken down, 
no man living could come down to me without mis- 
chieving himself; and if they had come down, they 
were still on the outside of my outer wall. 

Thus I took all the measures human prudence 
could suggest for my own preservation; and it will 
be seen, at length, that they were not altogether with- 
out just reason; though I foresaw nothing at that 
time more than my mere fear suggested to me. 

While this was doing, I was not altogether careless 
of my other affairs; for I had a great concern upon 
me for my little herd of goats. They were not only 


206 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


a present supply to me upon every occasion, and be- 
gan to be sufficient to me, without the exj)ense of 
powder and shot, but also without the fatigue of 
hunting after the wild ones; and I was loath to lose 
the advantage of them, and to have them all to nurse 
up over again. 

To this purpose, after long consideration, I could 
think of but two ways to preserve them. One was, 
to find another convenient place to dig a cave under 
ground, and to drive them into it every night; and 
the other was, to enclose two or three little bits of 
land, remote from one another, and as much concealed 
as I could, where I might keep about half a dozen 
young goats in each place; so that if any disaster 
happened to the flock in general, I might be able to 
raise them again with little trouble and time. And 
this, though it would require a great deal of time and 
labor, I thought was the most rational design. 

Accordingly I spent some time to find out the most 
retired parts of the island ; and I pitched upon one 
which was as private indeed as my heart could wish 
for. It was a little damp piece of ground, in the 
middle of the hollow and thick woods, where, as is 
observed, I almost lost myself once before, endeavor- 
ing to come back that way from the eastern part of 
the island. Here I found a clear piece of land, near 
three acres, so surrounded with woods that it was 
almost an enclosure by Nature; at least, it did not 
want near so much labor to make it so as the other 
pieces of ground I had worked so hard at. 

I immediately went to work with this piece of 
ground, and in less than a month’s time I had so 
fenced it round that my flock, or herd, call it which 
you please, who were not so wild now as at first they 


THE FORTIFICATION, 


207 


might be supposed to be, were well enough secured 
in it. So, without any farther delay, I removed ten 
young she goats and two he goats to this piece. And 
when they were there, I continued to perfect the 
fence till I had made it as secure as the other, which, 
however, I did at more leisure, and it took me up 
more time by a great deal. 

All this labor I was at the expense of, purely from 
my apprehensions on the account of the print of a 
man’s foot which I had seen; for, as yet, I never saw 
any human creature come near the island. And I 
had now lived two years under these uneasinesses, 
which, indeed, made my life much less comfortable 
than it was before, as may well be imagined by any 
who know what it is to live in the constant snare 
of the fear of man. And this I must observe, with 
grief too, that the discomposure of my mind had too 
great impressions also upon the religious part of my 
thoughts ; for the dread and terror of falling into the 
hands of savages and cannibals lay so upon my spirits 
that I seldom found myself in a due temper for appli- 
cation to my Maker, at least not with the sedate 
calmness and resignation of soul which I was wont 
to do. I rather prayed to God as under great afflic- 
tion and pressure of mind, surrounded with danger, 
and in expectation every night of being murdered 
and devoured before morning; and I must testify 
from my experience that a temper of peace, thank- 
fulness, love, and affection is much more the proper 
frame for prayer than that of terror and discompo- 
sure; and that under the dread of mischief impend- 
ing, a man is no more fit for" a comforting perfor- 
mance of the duty of praying to God, than he is for 
repentance on a sick-bed. For these discomposures 


208 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


affect the mind, as the others do the body ; and the 
discomposure of the mind must necessarily be as 
great a disability as that of the body, and much 
greater, praying to God being properly an act of the 
mind, not of the body. 

But to go on. After I had thus secured one part 
of my little living stock, I went about the whole 
island, searching for another private place to make 
such another deposit; when, wandering more to the 
west point of the island than I had ever done yet, 
and looking out to sea, I thought I saw a boat upon 
the sea, at a great distance. I had found a prospec- 
tive glass ^ or two in one of the seamen’s chests, which 
I saved out of our ship, but I had it not about me ; 
and this was so remote that I could not tell what to 
make of it, though I looked at it till my eyes were 
not able to hold to look any longer. Whether it was 
a boat or not, I do not know; but as I descended 
from the hill, I could see no more of it, so I gave it 
over; only I resolved to go no more out without a 
prospective glass in my pocket. 

When I was come down the hill to the end of the 
island, where, indeed, I had never been before, I was 
presently convinced that the seeing the print of a 
man’s foot was not such a strange thing in the island 
as I imagined. And, but that it was a special provi- 
dence that I was cast upon the side of the island 
where the savages never came, I should easily have 
known that nothing was more frequent than for the 
canoes from the main, when they happened to be a 
little too far out at sea, to shoot over to that side of 
the island for harbor; likewise, as they often met 
and fought in their canoes, the victors having taken 
^ I, e.f a spy-glass. 


THE FORTIFICATION. 


209 


any prisoners would bring them over to this shore, 
where, according to their dreadful customs, being all 
cannibals, they would kill and eat them; of which 
hereafter. 

When I was come down the hill to the shore, as I 
said above, being the S. W. point of the island, I 
was perfectly confounded and amazed; nor is it pos- 
sible for me to express the horror of my mind at see- 
ing the shore spread with skulls, hands, feet, and 
other bones of human bodies; and particularly, I 
observed a j)lace where tjiere had been a fire made, 
and a circle dug in the earth, like a cockpit, where 
it is supposed the savage wretches had sat down to 
their inhuman feastings upon the bodies of their fel- 
low-creatures. 

I was so astonished with the sight of these things 
that I entertained no notion of any danger to myself 
from it for a long while. All my apprehensions were 
buried in the thoughts of such a pitch of inhuman, 
hellish brutality, and the horror of the degeneracy of 
human nature, which, though I had heard of often, 
yet I never had so near a view of before. In short, 
I turned away my face from the horrid spectacle. 
My stomach grew sick, and I was just at the point of 
fainting, when Nature discharged the disorder from 
my stomach. And having vomited with an uncom- 
mon violence, I was a little relieved, but could not 
bear to stay in the place a moment ; so I got me up 
the hill again with all the speed I could, and walked 
on towards my own habitation. 

When I came a little out of that part of the island, 
I stood still a while, as amazed; and then recovering 
myself, I looked up with the utmost affection of my 
soul, and with a flood of tears in my eyes, gave God 


210 


nOBINSON CRUSOE. 


thanks that had cast my first lot in a part of the 
world where I was distinguished from such dreadful 
creatures as these ; and that, though I had esteemed 
my present condition very miserable, had yet given 
me so many comforts in it that I had still more to 
give thanks for than to complain of; and this above 
all, that I had, even in this miserable condition, been 
comforted with the knowledge of Himself, and the 
hope of His blessing ; which was a felicity more than 
sufficiently equivalent to all the misery which I had 
suffered, or could suffer. 

In this frame of thankfulness I went home to my 
castle, and began to be much easier now, as to the 
safety of my circumstances, than ever I was before; 
for I observed that these wretches never came to this 
island in search of what they could get ; perhaps not 
seeking, not wanting, or not expecting, anything 
here; and having often, no doubt, been up in the 
covered, woody part of it, without finding anything 
to their purpose. I knew I bad been here now almost 
eighteen years, and never saw the least footsteps of 
human creature there before; and I might be here 
eighteen more as entirely concealed as I was now, if 
I did not discover myself to them, which I had no 
manner of occasion to do ; it being my only business 
to keep myself entirely concealed where I was, unless 
I found a better sort of creatures than cannibals to 
make myself known to. 

Yet I entertained such an abhorrence of the savage 
wretches that I have been speaking of, and of the 
wretched inhuman custom of their devouring and 
eating one another up, that I continued pensive and 
sad, and kept close within my own circle for almost 
two years after this. When. I say my own circle, I 


THE FORTIFICATION. 


211 


mean by it my three plantations, viz., my castle, my 
country seat, which I called my bower, and my en- 
closure in the woods. Nor did I look after this for 
any other use than as an enclosure for my goats ; for 
the aversion which Nature gave me to these hellish 
wretches was such that I was fearful of seeing them 
as of seeing the devil himself. Nor did I so much 
as go to look after my boat in all this time, but 
began rather to think of making me another; for I 
could not think of ever making any more attempts 
to bring the other boat round the island to me, lest 
I should meet with some of these creatures at sea, in 
which, if I had happened to have fallen into their 
hands, I knew what would have been my lot. 

Time, however, and the satisfaction I had that I 
was in no danger of being discovered by these people, 
began to wear off my uneasiness about them ; and I 
began to live just in the same composed manner as 
before; only with this difference, that I used more 
caution, and kept my eyes more about me, than I did 
before, lest I should happen to be seen by any of 
them ; and particularly, I was more cautious of firing 
my gun, lest any of them being on the island should 
happen to hear of it. And it was, therefore, a very 
good providence to me that I had furnished myself 
with a tame breed of goats, that I needed not hunt 
any more about the woods, or shoot at them. And if 
I did catch any of them after this, it was by traps 
and snares, as I had done before; so that for two 
years after this I believe I never fired my gun once 
off, though I never went out without it; and, which 
was more, as I had saved three pistols out of the 
ship, I always carried them out with me, or at least 
two of them, sticking them in my goat-skin belt. 


212 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


Also I furbished up one of the great cutlasses that I 
had out of the ship, and made me a belt to put it on 
also ; so that I was now a most formidable fellow to 
look at when I went abroad, if you add to the former 
description of myself the particular of two pistols and 
a great broadsword hanging at my side in a belt, but 
without a scabbard. 

Things going on thus, as I have said, for some 
time, I seemed, excepting these cautions, to be re- 
duced to my former calm, sedate way of living. All 
these things tended to showing me, more and more, 
how far my condition was from being miserable, com- 
pared to some others; nay, to many other particulars 
of life, which it might have pleased God to have 
made my lot. It put me upon reflecting how little 
repining there would be among mankind at any con- 
dition of life, if people would rather compare their 
condition with those that are worse, in order to be 
thankful, than be always comparing them with those 
which are better, to assist their murmurings and com- 
plainings. 

As in my present condition there were not really 
many things which I wanted, so indeed I thought 
that the frights I had been in about these savage 
wretches, and the concern I had been in for my own 
preservation, had taken off the edge of my invention 
for my own conveniences. And I had dropped a 
good design, which I had once bent my thoughts too 
much upon ; and that was, to try if I could not make 
some of my barley into malt, and then try to brew 
myself some beer. This was really a whimsical 
thought, and I reproved myself often for the simpli- 
city of it ; for I presently saw there would be the want 
of several things necessary to the making my beer, 


THE FORTIFICATION, 


213 


that it would be impossible for me to supply. As, 
first, casks to preserve it in, which was a thing that, 
as I have observed already, I could never compass; 
no, though I spent not many days, but weeks, nay, 
months, in attempting it, but to no purpose. In the 
next place, I had no hops to make it keep, no yeast 
to make it work, no copper or kettle to make it boil; 
and yet all these things notwithstanding, I verily 
believe, had not these things intervened, I mean the 
frights and terrors I was in about the savages, I had 
undertaken it, and perhaps brought it to pass too ; for 
I seldom gave anything over without accomplishing it 
when I once had it in my head enough to begin it. 

But my invention now run quite another way ; for, 
night and day, I could think of nothing but how I 
might destroy some of these monsters in their cruel, 
bloody entertainment, and, if possible, save the vic- 
tim they should bring hither to destroy. It would 
take up a larger volume than this whole work is in« 
tended to be, to set down all the contrivances I 
hatched, or rather brooded upon, in my thought, for 
the destroying these creatures, or at least frighting 
them so as to prevent their coming hither any more. 
But all was abortive ; nothing could be possible to take 
effect, unless I was to be there to do it myself. And 
what could one man do among them, when perhaps 
there might be twenty or thirty of them together, with 
their darts, or their bows and arrows, with which they 
could shoot as true to a mark as I could with my gun? 

Sometimes I contrived to dig a hole under the 
place where they made their fire, and put in five or 
six pound of gunpowder, which, when they kindled 
their fire, would consequently take fire, and blow up 
all that was near it. But as, in the first place, I 


214 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


should be very loath to waste so much powder upon 
them, my store being now within the quantity of one 
barrel, so neither could I be sure of its going off at 
any certain time, when it might surprise them; and, • 
at best, that it would do little more than just blow 
the fire about their ears, and fright them, but not 
sufficient to make them forsake the place. So I laid 
it aside, and then proposed that I would place myself 
in ambush in some convenient place, with my three 
guns all double-loaded, and, in the middle of their 
bloody ceremony, let fly at them, when I should be 
sure to kill or wound perhaps two or three at every 
shot; and then falling in upon them with my three 
pistols and my sword, I made no doubt but that if 
there was twenty I should kill them all. This fancy 
pleased my thoughts for some weeks; and I was so 
full of it that I often dreamed of it, and sometimes 
that I was just going to let fly at them in my sleep. 

I went so far with it in my imagination that I 
employed myself several days to find out proper places 
to put myself in ambuscade, as I said, to watch for 
them ; and I went frequently to the place itself, 
which was now grown more familiar to me; and espe- 
cially while my mind was thus filled with thoughts of 
revenge, and of a bloody putting twenty or thirty of 
them to the sword, as I may call it, the horror I had 
at the place, and at the signals of the barbarous 
wretches devouring one another, abated my malice. 

Well, at length I found a place in the side of the 
hill, where I was satisfied I might securely wait till 
I saw any of their boats coming; and might then, 
even before they would be ready to come on shore, 
convey myself, unseen, into thickets of trees, in one 
of which there was a hollow large enough to conceal 


THE FORTIFICATION, 


215 


me entirely ; and where I might sit and observe all 
their bloody doings, and take my full aim at their 
heads, when they were so close together as that it 
would be next to impossible that I should miss my 
shot, or that I could fail wounding three or four of 
them at the first shot. 

In this place, then, I resolved to fix my design; 
and, accordingly, I prepared two muskets and my 
ordinary fowling-piece. The two muskets I loaded 
with a brace of slugs each, and four or five smaller 
bullets, about the size of pistol-bullets ; and the fowl- 
ing-piece I loaded with near a handful of swan-shot, 
of the largest size. I also loaded my pistols with 
about four bullets each; and in this posture,^ well 
provided with ammunition for a second and third 
charge, I prepared myself for my expedition. 

After I had thus laid the scheme of my design, 
and in my imagination put it in practice, I contin- 
ually made my tour every morning up to the top of 
the hill, which was from my castle, as I called it, 
about three miles or more, to see if I could observe 
any boats upon the sea coming near the island, or 
standing over towards it. But I began to tire of this 
hard duty, after I had, for two or three months, con- 
stantly kept my watch, but came always back without 
any discovery; there having not, in all that time, 
been the least appearance, not only on or near the 
shore, but not on the whole ocean, so far as my eyes 
or glasses could reach every way. 

As long as I kept up my daily tour to the hill to 
look out, so long also I kept up the vigor of my de- 
sign, and my spirits seemed to be all the while in a 

^ Posture here is not the attitude of the body, but has the 
meaning of condition. 


216 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


suitable form for so outrageous an execution as the 
killing twenty or thirty naked savages for an offence 
which I had not at all entered into a discussion of in 
my thoughts, any farther than my passions were at 
first fired by the horror I conceived at the unnatural 
custom of that people of the country; who, it seems, 
had been suffered by Providence, in His wise disposi- 
tion of the world, to have no other guide than that of 
their own abominable and vitiated passions; and con- 
sequently were left, and perhaps had been so for some 
ages, to act such horrid things, and receive such 
dreadful customs, as nothing but Nature entirely aban- 
doned of Heaven, and acted ^ by some hellish degen- 
eracy, could have run them into. But now when, as 
I have said, I began to be weary of the fruitless ex- 
cursion which I had made so long and so far every 
morning in vain, so my opinion of the action itself 
began to alter; and I began, with cooler and calmer 
thoughts, to consider what it was I was going to en- 
gage in. What authority or call I had to pretend to 
be judge and executioner upon these men as crimi- 
nals, whom Heaven had thought fit, for so many 
ages, to suffer, unpunished, to go on, and to be, as 
it were, the executioners of His judgments one upon 
another. How far these people were offenders against 
me, and what right I had to engage in the quarrel of 
that blood which they shed promiscuously one upon 
another. I debated this very often with myself, 
thus : How do I know what God Himself judges in 
this particular case ? It is certain these people either 
do not commit this as a crime ; it is not against their 
own consciences’ reproving, or their light reproach- 

^ We have abandoned this use of the verb and substituted the 
form actuated. 


THE FORTIFICATION. 


217 


ing them. They do not know it to he an offence, and 
then commit it in defiance of Divine justice, as we 
do in almost all the sins we commit. They think it 
no more a crime to kill a captive taken in war than 
we do to kill an ox; nor to eat human flesh than we 
do to eat mutton. 

When I had considered this a little, it followed 
necessarily that I was certainly in the wrong in it ; 
that these people were not murderers in the sense 
that I had before condemned them in my thoughts, 
any more than those Christians were murderers who 
often put to death the prisoners taken in battle; or 
more frequently, upon many occasions, put whole 
troops of men to the sword, without giving quarter, 
though they threw down their arms and submitted. 

In the next place it occurred to me that albeit the 
usage they thus gave one another was thus brutish 
and inhuman, yet it was really nothing to me ; these 
people had done me no injury. That if they at- 
tempted me, or I saw it necessary for my immediate 
preservation to fall upon them, something might be 
said for it; but that as I was yet out of their power, 
and they had really no knowledge of me, and conse- 
quently no design upon me, and therefore it could 
not be just for me to fall upon them. That this 
would justify the conduct of the Spaniards in all 
their barbarities practised in America, and where 
they destroyed millions of these people; who, how- 
ever they were idolaters and barbarians, and had 
several bloody and barbarous rites in their customs, 
such as sacrificing human bodies to their idols, were 
yet, as to the Spaniards, very innocent people; and 
that the rooting them out of the country is spoken of 
with the utmost abhorrence and detestation by even 


218 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


the Spaniards themselves at this time, and by all 
other Christian nations of Europe, as a mere butch- 
ery, a bloody and unnatural j^iece of cruelty, unjustiv 
liable either to God or man; and such, as for which 
the very name of a Spaniard is reckoned to be fright- 
ful and terrible to all people of humanity, or of Chris- 
tian compassion; as if the kingdom of Spain were 
particularly eminent for the product of a race of men 
who were without princiides of tenderness, or the com- 
mon bowels of pity to the miserable, which is reck- 
oned to be a mark of generous temper in the mind. 

These considerations really put me to a pause, and 
to a kind of a full stop ; and 1 began, by little and 
little, to be off of my design, and to conclude I had 
taken wrong measures in my resolutions to attack the 
savages ; that it was not my business to meddle with 
them, unless they first attacked me ; and this it was 
my business, if possible, to prevent; but that if I 
were discovered and attacked, then I knew my duty. 

On the other hand, I argued with myself that this 
really was the way not to deliver myself, but entirely 
to ruin and destroy myself ; for unless I was sure to 
kill every one that not only should be on shore at that 
time, but that should ever come on shore afterwards, 
if but one of them escaped to tell their country people 
what had happened, they would come over again by 
thousands to revenge the death of their fellows, and 
I should only bring upon myself a certain destruction 
which, at present, I had no manner of occasion for. 

Upon the whole, I concluded that neither in prin- 
cijDles nor in policy I ought, one way or other, to 
concern myself in this affair. That my business 
was, by all possible means, to conceal myself from 
them, and not to leave the least signal to them to 


THE FORTIFICATION, 219 

guess by that there were any living creatures upon 
the island; I mean of human shape. 

Religion joined in with this prudential,^ and I was 
convinced now, many ways, that I was perfectly out 
of my duty when I was laying all my bloody schemes 
for the destruction of innocent creatures; I mean 
innocent as to me. As to the crimes they were guilty 
of towards one another, I had nothing to do with 
them. They were national, and I ought to leave 
them to the justice of God, who is the Governor of 
nations, and knows how, by national punishments, 
to make a just retribution for national offences, and 
to bring public judgments upon those who offend in 
a public manner by such ways as best pleases Him. 

This appeared so clear to me now, that nothing was 
a greater satisfaction to me than that I had not been 
suffered to do a thing which I now saw so much rea- 
son to believe would have been no less a sin than that 
of wilful murder, if I had committed it. And I gave 
most humble thanks on my knees to God that had 
thus delivered me from blood-guiltiness; beseeching 
Him to grant me the protection of His providence, 
that I might not fall into the hands of the barbarians, 
or that I might not lay my hands upon them, unless 
I had a more clear call from Heaven to do it, in 
defence of my own life. 

^ Prudential here is a noun, and is formed like credential. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


THE OLD GOAT AND THE CAVE. 

In this disposition I continued for near a year after 
this ; and so far was I from desiring an occasion for 
falling upon these wretches, that in all that time I 
never once went up the hill to see whether there were 
any of them in sight, or to know whether any of them 
had been on shore, there or not, that I might not be 
tempted to renew any of my contrivances against 
them, or be provoked, by any advantage which might 
present itself, to fall upon them. Only this I did, 
I went and removed my boat, which I had on the 
other side the island, and carried it down to the east 
end of the whole island, where I ran it into a little 
cove, which I found under some high rocks, and 
where I knew, by reason of the currents, the savages 
durst not, at least would not come, with their boats, 
upon any account whatsoever. 

With my boat I carried away everything that I 
had left there belonging to her, though not necessary 
for the bare going thither, viz., a mast and sail which 
I had made for her, and a thing like an anchor, but 
indeed which could not be called either anchor or 
grappling; however, it was the best I could make of 
its kind; All these I removed, that there might not 
be the least shadow of any discovery, or any appear- 
ance of any boat, or of any human habitation, upon 
the island. 


THE OLD GOAT AND THE CAVE. 221 


Besides this, I kept myself, as I said, more retired 
than ever, and seldom went from my cell, other than 
upon my constant employment, viz., to milk my she 
goats, and manage my little flock in the wood, which, 
as it was quite on the other part of the island, was 
quite out of danger; for certain it is, that these sav- 
age people, who sometimes haunted this island, never 
came with any thoughts of finding anything here, and 
consequently never wandered off from the coast; and 
I doubt not but they might have been several times 
on shore after my apprehensions of them had made 
me cautious, as well as before ; and indeed, I looked 
back with some horror upon the thoughts of what my 
condition would have been if I had chopped ^ upon 
them and been discovered before that, when, naked 
and unarmed, except with one gun, and that loaded 
often only with small shot, I walked everywhere, 
peeping and peeping about the island to see what I 
could get. What a surprise should I have been in 
if, when I discovered the print of a man’s foot, I 
had, instead of that, seen fifteen or twenty savages, 
and found them pursuing me, and by the swiftness of 
their running, no possibility of my escaping them ! 

The thoughts of this sometimes sunk my very soul 
within me, and distressed my mind so much that I 
could not soon recover it, to think what I should 
have done, and how I not only should not have been 
able to resist them, but even should not have had 
presence of mind enough to do what I might have 
done, much less what now, after so much considera- 
tion and preparation, I might be able to do. Indeed, 
after serious thinking of these things, I should be 
very melancholy, and sometimes it would last a great 

^ Chopped^ i. e., came suddenly upon. The use is now obsolete. 


222 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


while ; but I resolved it, at last, all into thankfulness 
to that Providence which had delivered me from so 
many unseen dangers, and had kept me from those 
mischiefs which I could no way have been the agent 
in delivering myself from, because I had not the least 
notion of any such thing depending, or the least sup- 
position of it being possible. 

This renewed a contemplation which often had 
come to my thoughts in former time, when first I be- 
gan to see the merciful dispositions of Heaven, in the 
dangers we run through in this life. How wonder- 
fully we are delivered when we know nothing of it. 
How, when we are in a quandary, as we call it, a 
doubt or hesitation, whether to go this way or that 
way, a secret hint shall .direct us this way, when we 
intended to go that way; nay, when sense, our own 
inclination, and perhaps business, has called to go 
the other way, yet a strange impression upon the 
mind from we know not what springs, and by we 
know not what power, shall overrule us to go this 
way; and it shall afterwards appear that had we 
gone that way which we should have gone, and even 
to our imagination ought to have gone, we should 
have been ruined and lost. Upon these and many 
like reflections I afterwards made it a certain rule 
with me, that whenever I found those secret hints or 
pressings of my mind to doing, or not doing, any- 
thing that presented, or to going this way or that 
way, I never failed to obey the secret dictate, though 
I knew no other reason for it than that such a pres- 
sure, or such a hint, hung upon my mind. I could 
give many examples of the success of this conduct in 
the course of my life, but more especially in the latter 
part of my inhabiting this unhappy island; besides 


THE OLD GOAT AND THE CAVE. 223 


many occasions which it is very likely I might have 
taken notice of, if I had seen with the same eyes then 
that I saw with now. But ’t is never too late to be 
wise; and I cannot but advise all considering men, 
whose lives are attended with such extraordinary in- 
cidents as mine, or even though not so extraordinary, 
not to slight such secret intimations of Providence, 
let them come from what invisible intelligence they 
will. That I shall not discuss, and perhaps cannot 
account for; but certainly they are a proof of the 
converse of spirits, and the secret communication 
between those embodied and those unembodied, and 
such a proof as can never be withstood, of which I 
shall have occasion to give some very remarkable 
instances in the remainder of my solitary residence 
in this dismal place. 

I believe the reader of this will not think strange 
if I confess that these anxieties, these constant dan- 
gers I lived in, and the concern that was now upon 
me, put an end to all invention, and to all the contri- 
vances that I had laid for my future accommodations 
and conveniences. I had the care of my safety more 
now upon my hands than that of my food. I cared 
not to drive a nail, or chop a stick of wood now, for 
fear the noise I should make should be heard; much 
less would I fire a gun, for the same reason; and, 
above all, I was intolerably uneasy at making any 
fire, lest the smoke, which is visible at a great dis- 
tance in the day, should betray me; and for this 
reason I removed that part of my business which 
required fire, such as burning of pots and pipes, etc., 
into my new apartment in the woods ; where, after I 
had been some time, I found, to my unspeakable con- 
solation, a mere natural cave in the earth, which went 


224 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


in a vast way, and where, I dare say, no savage, had 
he been at the mouth of it, would be so hardy as to 
venture in ; nor, indeed, would any man else, but one 
who, like me, wanted nothing so much as a safe retreat. 

The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a 
great rock, where, by mere accident I would say (if 
I did not see abundant reason to ascribe all such 
things now to Providence), I was cutting down some 
thick branches of trees to make charcoal; and before 
I go on, I must observe the reason of my making this 
charcoal, which was thus. 

I was afraid of making a smoke about my habita- 
tion, as I said before; and yet I could not live there 
without baking my bread, cooking my meat, etc. So 
I contrived to burn some wood here, as I had seen 
done in England under turf, till it became chark, or 
dry coal; and then putting the fire out, I preserved 
the coal to carry home, and perform the other ser- 
vices which fire was wanting for at home, without 
danger of smoke. 

But this is by the bye. While I was cutting down 
some wood here, I perceived that behind a very thick 
branch of low brushwood, or underwood, there was 
a kind of hollow place. I was curious to look into 
it; and getting with difficulty into the mouth of it, 
I found it was pretty large ; that is to say, sufficient 
for me to stand upright in it, and perhaps another 
with me. But I must confess to you I made more 
haste out than I did in when, looking farther into 
the place, and which was perfectly dark, I saw two 
broad shining eyes of some creature, whether devil 
or man I knew not, which twinkled like two stars, 
the dim light, from the cave’s mouth shining directly 
in, and making the reflection. ^ 


THE OLD GOAT AND THE CAVE. 225 


However, after some pause I recovered myself, and 
began to call myself a thousand fools, and tell myself 
that he that was afraid to see the devil was not fit to 
live twenty years in an island all alone, and that I 
durst to believe there was nothing in this cave that 
was more frightful than myself. Upon this, plucking 
up my courage, I took up a great firebrand, and in 
I rushed again, with the stick flaming in my hand. 
I had not gone three steps in, but I was almost as 
much frighted as I was before; for I heard a very 
loud sigh, like that of a man in some pain, and it 
was followed by a broken noise, as if of words half 
expressed, and then a deep sigh again. I stepped 
back, and was indeed struck with such a surprise 
that it put me into a cold sweat; and if I had had 
a hat on my head, I will not answer for it that my 
hair might not have lifted it off. But still plucking 
up my spirits as well as I could, and encouraging 
myself a little with considering that the power and 
presence of God was everywhere, and was able to 
protect me, upon this I stepped forward again, and 
by the light of the firebrand, holding it up a little 
over my head, I saw lying on the ground a most mon- 
strous, frightful, old he goat, just making his will, 
as we say, and gasping for life; and dying, indeed, 
of mere old age. 

I stirred him a little to see if I could get him out, 
and he essayed to get up, but was not able to raise 
himself; and I thought with myself he might even 
lie there; for if he had frighted me so, he would 
certainly fright any of the savages, if any of them 
should be so hardy as to come in there while he had 
any life in him. 

I was now recovered from my surprise, and began 


226 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


to look round me, when I found the cave was hut 
very small; that is to say, it might be about twelve 
feet over, but in no manner of shape, either round or 
square, no hands having ever been employed in mak- 
ing it but those of mere Nature. I observed also that 
there was a place at the farther side of it that went 
in farther, but was so low that it required me to 
creep upon my hands and knees to go into it, and 
whither I went I knew not ; so having no candle, I 
gave it over for some time, but resolved to come again 
the next day, provided with candles and a tinder-box, 
which I had made of the lock of one of the muskets, 
with some wild-fire in the pan. 

Accordingly, the next day I came provided with 
six large candles of my own making, for I made very 
good candles now of goat’s tallow; and going into 
this low place, I was obliged to creep upon all fours, 
as I have said, almost ten yards ; which, by the way, 
I thought was a venture bold enough, considering 
that I knew not how far it might go, nor what was 
beyond it. When I was got through the strait, I 
found the roof rose higher up, I believe near twenty 
feet. But never was such a glorious sight seen in 
the island, I dare say, as it was to look round the 
sides and roof of this vault or cave; the walls re- 
flected a hundred thousand lights to me from my 
two candles. What it was in the rock, whether dia- 
monds, or any other precious stones, or gold, which 
I rather supposed it to be, I knew not. 

The place I was in was a most delightful cavity or 
grotto of its kind, as could be expected, though per- 
fectly dark. The floor was dry and level, and had 
a sort of small loose gravel upon it, so that there was 
no nauseous or venomous creature to be seen; neither 


THE OLD GOAT AND THE CAVE. 227 


was there any damp or wet on the sides or roof. 
The only difficulty in it was the entrance, which, 
however, as it was a place of security, and such a 
retreat as I wanted, I thought that was a convenience ; 
so that I was really rejoiced at the discovery, and 
resolved, without any delay, to bring some of those 
things which I was most anxious about to this place ; 
particularly, I resolved to bring hither my magazine 
of powder, and all my spare arms, viz., two fowling- 
pieces, for I had three in all, and three muskets, for 
of them I had eight in all. So I kept at my castle 
only five, which stood ready-mounted, like pieces of 
cannon, on my outmost fence; and were ready also 
to take out upon any expedition. 

Upon this occasion of removing my ammunition, 
I took occasion to open the barrel of powder which 
I took up out of the sea, and which had been wet ; 
and I found that the water had penetrated about three 
or four inches into the powder on every side, which 
caking, and growing hard, had preserved the inside 
like a kernel in a shell; so that I had near sixty 
pounds of very good powder in the centre of the cask. 
And this was an agreeable discovery to me at that 
time; so I carried all away thither, never keeping 
above two or three pounds of powder with me in my 
castle, for fear of a surprise of any kind. I also 
carried thither all the lead I had left for bullets. 

I fancied myself now like one of the ancient giants, 
which were said to live in caves and holes in the 
rocks, where none could come at them; for I per- 
suaded myself, while I was here, if five hundred sav- 
ages were to hunt me, they could never find me out; 
or, if they did, they would not venture to attack me 
here. 


228 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


The old goat, whom I found expiring, died in the 
mouth of the cave the next day after I made this dis- 
covery; and I found it much easier to dig a great 
hole there, and throw him in and cover him with 
earth, than to drag him out; so I interred him there, 
to prevent the offence to my nose. 


CHAPTER XX. 


THE KETURN OF THE SAVAGES. 

I WAS now in my twenty -third year of residence in 
this island ; and was so naturalized to the place, and 
to the manner of living, that could I have but enjoyed 
the certainty that no savages would come to the place 
to disturb me, I could have been content to have ca- 
pitulated for spending the rest of my time there, even 
to the last moment, till I had laid me down and died, 
like the old goat in the cave. I had also arrived to 
some little diversions and amusements, which made 
the time pass more pleasantly with me a great deal 
than it did before. As, first, I had taught my Poll, 
as I noted before, to speak; and he did it so famil- 
iarly, and talked so articulately and plain, that it 
was very pleasant to me; and he lived with me no 
less than six and twenty years. How long he might 
live afterwards I know not, though I know they have 
a notion in the Brazils that they live a hundred 
years. Perhaps poor Poll may be alive there still, 
calling after poor Robin Crusoe to this day. I wish 
no Englishman the ill luck to come there and hear 
him ; but if he did, he would certainly believe it was 
the devil. My dog was a very pleasant and loving 
companion to me for no less than sixteen years of my 
time, and then died of mere old age. As for my 
cats, they multiplied, as I have observed, to that 
degree that I was obliged to shoot several of them 


230 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


at first to keep them from devouring me and all I 
had ; but at length, when the two old ones I brought 
with me were gone, and after some time continually 
driving them from me, and letting them have no pro- 
vision with me, they all ran wild into the woods, ex- 
cept two or three favorites, which I kept tame, and 
whose young, when they had any, I always drowned ; 
and these were part of my family. Besides these, I 
always kept two or three household kids about me, 
whom I taught to feed out of my hand. And I had 
two more parrots, which talked pretty well, and would 
all call Robin Crusoe,” but none like my first; nor, 
indeed, did I take the pains with any of them that I 
had done with him. I had also several tame sea- 
fowls, whose names I know not, whom I caught upon 
the shore, and cut their wings; and the little stakes 
which I had planted before my castle wall being now 
grown up to a good thick grove, these fowls all lived 
among these low trees, and bred there, which was 
very agreeable to me; so that, as I said above, I 
began to be very well contented with the life I led, 
if it might but have been secured from the dread of 
the savages. 

But it was otherwise directed ; and it may not be 
amiss for all people who shall meet with my story, to 
make this just observation from it, viz., how fre- 
quently, in the course of our lives, the evil which in 
itself we seek most to shun, and which, when we are 
fallen into it, is the most dreadful to us, is oftentimes 
the very means or door of our deliverance, by which 
alone we can be raised again from the affliction we 
are fallen into. I could give many examples of this 
in the course of my unaccountable life ; but in nothing 
was it more particularly remarkable than in the cir- 


THE RETURN OF THE SAVAGES. 231 


cumstances of my last years of solitary residence in 
this island. 

It was now the month of December, as I said 
above, in my twenty-third year; and this, being the 
southern solstice (for winter I cannot call it), was the 
particular time of my harvest, and required my being 
pretty much abroad in the fields; when, going out 
pretty early in the morning, even before it was thor- 
ough daylight, I was surprised with seeing a light of 
some fire upon the shore, at a distance from me of 
about two miles, towards the end of the island, where 
I had observed some savages had been, as before. 
But not on the other side; but, to my great affliction, 
it was on my side of the island. 

I was indeed terribly surprised at the sight, and 
stepped short within my grove, not daring to go out, 
lest I might be surprised; and yet I had no more 
peace within, from the apprehensions I had that if 
these savages, in rambling over the island, should 
find my corn standing or cut, or any of my works 
and improvements, they would immediately conclude 
that there were people in the place, and would then 
never give over till they had found me out. In this 
extremity I went back directly to my castle, pulled 
up the ladder after me, and made all things without 
look as wild and natural as I could. 

Then I prepared myself within, putting myself in 
a posture of defence. I loaded all my cannon, as I 
called them, that is to say, my muskets, which were 
mounted upon my new fortification, and all my pis- 
tols, and resolved to defend .myself to the last gasp; 
not forgetting seriously to commend myself to the 
Divine protection, and earnestly to pray to God to 
deliver me out of the hands of the barbarians. And 


232 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


in this posture I continued about two hours; but 
began to be mighty impatient for intelligence abroad, 
for I had no spies to send out. 

After sitting a while longer, and musing what I 
should do in this case, I was not able to bear sitting 
in ignorance any longer; so setting up my ladder to 
the side of the hill where there was a flat place, as I 
observed before, and then pulling the ladder up after 
me, I set it up again, and mounted to the top of the 
hill; and pulling out my prospective glass, which I 
had taken on purpose, I laid me down flat on my 
belly on the ground, and began to look for the place. 
I presently found there was no less than nine naked 
savages sitting round a small fire they had made, not 
to warm them, for they had no need of that, the 
weather being extreme hot, but, as I supposed, to 
dress some of their barbarous diet of human flesh 
which they had brought with them, whether alive or 
dead, I could not know. 

They had two canoes with them, which they had 
hauled up upon the shore ; and as it was then tide of 
ebb, they seemed to me to wait for the return of the 
flood to go away again. It is not easy to imagine 
what confusion this sight put me into, especially see- 
ing them come on my side the island, and so near me 
too. But when I observed their coming must be al- 
ways with the current of the ebb, I began afterwards 
to be more sedate in my mind, being satisfied that I 
might go abroad with safety all the time of the tide 
of flood, if they were not on shore before; and hav- 
ing made this observation, I went abroad about my 
harvest-work with the more composure. 

As I expected, so it proved ; for as soon as the tide 
made to the westward, I saw them all take boat, and 


THE RETURN OF THE SAVAGES. 233 


row (or paddle, as we call it) all away. I should 
have observed, that for an hour and more before they 
went off, they went to dancing; and I could easily 
discern their postures and gestures by my glasses. I 
could not perceive, by my nicest observation, but that 
they were stark naked, and had not the least covering 
upon them; but whether they were men or women, 
that I could not distinguish. 

As soon as I saw them shipped and gone, I took 
two guns upon my shoulders, and two pistols at my 
girdle, and my great sword by my side, without a 
scabbard, and with all the speed I was able to make 
I went away to the hill where I had discovered the 
first appearance of all. And as soon as I gat thither, 
which was not less than two hours (for I could not go 
apace, being so loaden with arms as I was), I per- 
ceived there had been three canoes more of savages 
on that place; and looking out farther, I saw they 
were all at sea together, making over for the main. 

This was a dreadful sight to me, especially when, 
going down to the shore, I could see the marks of 
horror which the dismal work they had been about 
had left behind it, viz., the blood, the bones, and 
part of the flesh of human bodies, eaten and devoured 
by those wretches with merriment and sport. I was 
so filled with indignation at the sight that I began 
now to premeditate the destruction of the next that 
I saw there, let them be who or how many soever. 

It seemed evident to me that the visits which they 
thus made to this island are not very frequent, for it 
was above fifteen months before any more of them 
came on shore there • again ; that is to say, I neither 
saw them, or any footsteps or signals of them, in all 
that time; for, as to the rainy seasons, then they are 


234 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


sure not to come abroad, at least not so far. Yet all 
this while I lived uncomfortably, by reason of the 
constant apprehensions I was in of their coming uj)on 
me by surprise; from whence I observe that the 
expectation of evil is more bitter than the suffering, 
especially if there is no room to shake off that expec- 
tation, or those apprehensions. 

During all this time I was in the murdering humor, 
and took up most of my hours, which should have 
been better employed, in contriving how to circum- 
vent and fall upon them the very next time I should 
see them; especially if they should be divided, as 
they were the last time, into two parties. Nor did I 
consider at all that if I killed one party, suppose ten 
or a dozen, I was still the next day, or week, or 
month, to kill another, and so another, even ad 
infinitum., till I should be at length no less a mur- 
derer than they were in being man-eaters, and per- 
haps much more so. 

I spent my days now in great perplexity and anx- 
iety of mind, expecting that I should, one day or 
other, fall into the hands of these merciless creatures ; 
and if I did at any time venture abroad, it was not 
without looking round me with the greatest care and 
caution imaginable. And now I found, to my great 
comfort, how happy it was that I provided for a tame 
flock or herd of goats; for I durst not, upon any 
account. Are my gun, especially near that side of the 
island where they usually came, lest I should alarm 
the savages. And if they had fled from me now, I 
was sure to have them come back again, with perhaps 
two or three hundred canoes with them, in a few 
days, and then I knew what to expect. 


CHAPTER XXI. 


THE WRECK. 

However, I wore out a year and three months more 
before I ever saw any more of the savages, and then 
I found them again, as I shall soon observe. It is true 
they might have been there once or twice, but either 
they made no stay, or at least I did not hear them; 
but in the month of May, as near as I could calcu- 
late, and in my four and twentieth year, I had a very 
strange encounter with them; of which in its place. 

The perturbation of my mind, during this fifteen 
or sixteen months’ interval, was very great. I slept 
unquiet, dreamed always frightful dreams, and often 
started out of my sleep in the night. In the day 
great troubles overwhelmed my mind, and in the 
night I dreamed often of killing the savages, and of 
the reasons why I might justify the doing of it. But, 
to waive all this for a while, it was in the middle of 
May, on the sixteenth day, I think, as well as my 
poor wooden calendar would reckon, for I marked all 
upon the post still ; I say, it was the sixteenth of May 
that it blew a very great storm of wind all day, with 
a great deal of lightning and thunder, and a very foul 
night it was after it. I know not what was the par- 
ticular occasion of it, but as I was reading in the 
Bible, and taken up with very serious thoughts about 
my present condition, I was surprised with a noise of 
a gun, as I thought, fired at sea. 


236 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


This was, to be sure, a surprise of a quite different 
nature from any I had met with before ; for the no- 
tions this put into my thoughts were quite of another 
kind. I started up in the greatest haste imaginable, 
and, in a trice, clapped my ladder to the middle place 
of the rock, and pulled it after me ; and mounting it 
the second time, got to the top of the hill the very 
moment that a flash of Are bid me listen for a second 
gun, which accordingly, in about half a minute, I 
heard; and, by the sound, knew that it was from 
that part of the sea where I was driven down the cur- 
rent in my boat. 

I immediately considered that this must be some 
ship in distress, and that they had some comrade, or 
some other, ship in company, and fired these guns for 
signals of distress, and to obtain help. I had this 
presence of mind, at that minute, as to think that 
though I could not help them, it may be they might 
help me; so I brought together all the dry wood I 
could get at hand, and, making a good handsome 
pile, I set it on fire upon the hill. The wood was 
dry, and blazed freely; and though the wind blew 
very hard, yet it burnt fairly out; so that I was cer- 
tain, if there was any such thing as a ship, they must 
needs see it, and no doubt they did; for as soon as 
ever my fire blazed up I heard another gun, and after 
that several others, all from the same quarter. I 
plied my fire all night long till day broke ; and when 
it was broad day, and the air cleared up, I saw some- 
thing at a great distance at sea, full east of the 
island, whether a sail or a hull I could not distin- 
guish, no, not with my glasses, the distance was so 
great, and the weather still something hazy also; at 
least it was so out at sea. 


THE WRECK. 


237 


I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon 
perceived that it did not move; so I presently con- 
cluded that it was a ship at an anchor. And being 
eager, you may be sure, to be satisfied, I took my 
gun in my hand and ran toward the south side of the 
island, to the rocks where I had formerly been car- 
ried away with the current; and getting up there, 
the weather by this time being perfectly clear, I could 
plainly see, to my great sorrow, the wreck of a ship, 
cast away in the night upon those concealed rocks 
which I found when I was out in my boat ; and which 
rocks, as they checked the violence of the stream, and 
made a kind of counter-stream or eddy, were the occa- 
sion of my recovering from the most desperate, hope- 
less condition that ever I had been in in all my life. 

Thus, what is one man’s safety is another man’s 
destruction; for it seems these men, whoever they 
were, being out of their knowledge, and the rocks 
being wholly under water, had been driven upon them 
in the night, the wind blowing hard at E. and E. N. 
E. Had they seen the island, as I must necessarily 
suppose they did not, they must, as I thought, have 
endeavored to have saved themselves on shore by the 
help of their boat; but their firing of guns for help, 
especially when they saw, as I imagined, my fire, 
filled me with many thoughts. First, I imagined that 
upon seeing my light, they might have put themselves 
into their boat, and have endeavored to make the 
shore ; but that the sea going very high, they might 
have been cast away. Other times I imagined that 
they might have lost their boat before, as might be 
the case many ways ; as, particularly, by the breaking 
of the sea upon their ship, which many times obliges 
men to stave, or take in pieces their boat, and some- 


238 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


times to throw it overboard with their own hands. 
Other times I imagined they had some other ship or 
ships in company, who, upon the signals of distress 
they had made, had taken them up and carried them 
off. Other whiles I fancied they were all gone off to 
sea in their boat, and, being hurried away by the 
current that I had been formerly in, were carried out 
into the great ocean, where there was nothing but 
misery and perishing; and that, perhaps, they might 
by this time think of starving, and of being in a con- 
dition to eat one another. 

As all these were but conjectures at best, so, in the 
condition I was in, I could do no more than look on 
upon the misery of the poor men, and pity them; 
which had still this good effect on my side, that it 
gave me more and more cause to give thanks to God, 
who had so happily and comfortably provided for me 
in my desolate condition; and that of two ships’ com- 
panies who were now cast away upon this part of the 
world, not one life should be spared but mine. I 
learned here again to observe, that it is very rare that 
the providence of God casts us into any condition of 
life so low, or any misery so great, but we may see 
something or other to be thankful for, and may see 
others in worse circumstances than our own. 

Such certainly was the case of these men, of whom 
I could not so much as see room to suppose any of 
them were saved. Nothing could make it rational so 
much as to wish or expect that they did not all perish 
there, except the possibility only of their being taken 
up by another ship in company; and this was but 
mere possibility indeed, for I saw not the least signal 
or appearance of any such thing. 

I cannot explain, by any possible energy of words. 


THE WRECK. 


239 


wliat a strange longing or hankering of desires I felt 
in my soul upon this sight, breaking out sometimes 
thus: “Oh, that there had been but one or two, nay, 
or but one soul, saved out of this ship, to have es- 
caped to me, that I might but have had one compan- 
ion, one fellow-creature, to have spoken to me, and 
to have conversed with ! ” In all the time of my soli- 
tary life, I never felt so earnest, so strong a desire 
after the society of my fellow-creatures, or so deep 
a regret at the want of it. 

There are some secret moving springs in the affec- 
tions which, when they are set agoing by some object 
in view, or be it some object, though not in view, yet 
rendered present to the mind by the power of imagi- 
nation, that motion carries out the soul by its impetu- 
osity to such violent, eager embracings of the object, 
that the absence of it is insupportable. 

Such were these earnest wishings that but one man 
had been saved! “Oh, that it had been but one! ” I 
believe I repeated the words, “Oh, that it had been 
but one! ” a thousand times; and the desires were so 
moved by it that when I spoke the words my hands 
would clinch together, and my fingers press the palms 
of my hands, that if I had had any soft thing in my 
hand, it would have crushed it involuntarily ; and my 
teeth in my head would strike together, and set 
against one another so strong, that for some time I 
could not part them again. 

Let the naturalists explain these things, and the 
reason and manner of them. All I can say to them 
is to describe the fact, which was even surprising to 
me when I found it, though I knew not from what it 
should proceed. It was doubtless the effect of ardent 
wishes, and of strong ideas formed in my mind, real- 


240 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


izing the comfort which the conversation of one of 
my fellow-Christians would have been to me. 

But it was not to be. Either their fate or mine, 
or both, forbid it ; for, till the last year of my being 
on this island, I never knew whether any were saved 
out of that ship or no ; and had only the affliction, 
some days after, to see the corpse of a drowned boy 
come on shore at the end of the island which was 
next the shipwreck. He had on no clothes but a 
seaman’s waistcoat, a pair of open-kneed linen 
drawers, and a blue linen shirt ; but nothing to direct 
me so much as to guess what nation he was of. He 
had nothing in his pocket but two pieces of eight and 
a tobacco-pipe. The last was to me of ten times 
more value than the first. 

It was now calm, and I had a great mind to ven- 
ture out in my boat to this wreck, not doubting but 
I might find something on board that might be useful 
to me. But that did not altogether press me so much 
as the possibility that there might be yet some living 
creature on board, whose life I might not only save, 
but might, by saving that life, comfort my own to 
the last degree. And this thought clung so to my 
heart that I could not be quiet night nor day, but I 
must venture out in my boat on board this wreck; 
and committing the rest to God’s providence, I 
thought, the impression was so strong upon my mind 
that it could not be resisted, that it must come from 
some invisible direction, and that I should be want- 
ing to myself if I did not go. 

Under the power of this impression, I hastened 
back to my castle, prepared everything for my voy- 
age, took a quantity of bread, a great pot for fresh 
water, a compass to steer by, a bottle of rum (for I 


THE WRECK, 


241 


had still a great deal of that left), a basket full of 
raisins, and thus, loading myself with everything 
necessary, I went down to my boat, got the water out 
of her, and got her afloat, loaded all my cargo in her, 
and then went home again for more. My second 
cargo was a great bag full of rice, the umbrella to set 
up over my head for shade, another large pot full of 
fresh water, and about two dozen of my small loaves 
or barley-cakes, more than before, with a bottle of 
goat’s milk and a cheese ; all which, with great labor 
and sweat, I brought to my boat. And praying to 
God to direct my voyage, I put out ; and rowing, or 
paddling, the canoe along the shore, I came at last 
to the utmost point of the island on that side, viz., 
N. E. And now I was to launch out into the ocean, 
and either to venture or not to venture. I looked on 
the rapid currents which ran constantly on both sides 
of the island at a distance, and which were very terri- 
ble to me, from the remembrance of the hazard I had 
been in before, and my heart began to fail me; for 
I foresaw that if I was driven into either of those 
currents, I should be carried a vast way out to sea, 
and perhaps out of my reach, or sight of the island 
again; and that then, as my boat was but small, if 
any little gale of wind should rise, I should be inevi- 
tably lost. 

These thoughts so oppressed my mind that I began 
to give over my enterprise; and having hauled my 
boat into a little creek on the shore, I stepped out, 
and sate me down upon a little rising bit of ground, 
very pensive and anxious, between fear and desire, 
about my voyage; when, as I was musing, I could 
perceive that the tide was turned, and the flood come 
on; upon which my going was for so many hours 


242 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


impracticable. Upon this, presently it occurred to 
me that I should go up to the highest piece of ground 
I could find and observe, if I could, how the sets of 
the tide, or currents, lay when the flood came in, that 
I might judge whether, if I was driven one way out, 
I might not expect to be driven another way home, 
with the same rapidness of the currents. This 
thought was no sooner in my head but I cast my eye 
upon a little hill, which sufficiently overlooked the 
sea both ways, and from whence I had a clear view 
of the currents, or sets of the tide, and which way I 
was to guide myself in my return. Here I found, 
that as the current of the ebb set out close by the 
south point of the island, so the current of the flood 
set in close by the shore of the north side ; and that 
I had nothing to do but to keep to the north of the 
island in my return, and I should do well enough. 

Encouraged with this observation, I resolved the 
next morning to set out with the first of the tide, and 
reposing myself for the night in the canoe, under the 
great watch-coat I mentioned, I launched out. I 
made first a little out to sea, full north, till I began 
to feel the benefit of the current which set eastward, 
and which carried me at a great rate; and yet did 
not so hurry me as the southern side current had 
done before, and so as to take from me all govern- 
ment of the boat ; but having a strong steerage with 
my paddle, I went at a great rate directly for the 
wreck, and in less than two hours I came up to it. 

It was a dismal sight to look at. The ship, which, 
by its building, was Spanish, stuck fast, jammed in 
between two rocks. All the stern and quarter of her 
was beaten to pieces with the sea; and as her fore- 
castle, which stuck in the rocks, had run on with 


THE WRECK. 


243 


great violence, her mainmast and foremast were 
brought by the board; that is to say, broken short 
ofE; but her bowsprit was sound, and the head and 
bow appeared firm. When I came close to her a dog 
appeared upon her, who, seeing me coming, yelped 
and cried ; and as soon as I called him, jumped into 
the sea to come to me, and I took him into the boat, 
but found him almost dead for hunger and thirst. I 
gave him a cake of my bread, and he eat it like a 
ravenous wolf that had been starving a fortnight in 
the snow. I then gave the poor creature some fresh 
water, with which, if I would have let him, he would 
have burst himself. 

After this I went on board; but the first sight I 
met with was two men drowned in the cook-room, or 
forecastle of the ship, with their arms fast about one 
another. I concluded, as is indeed probable, that 
when the ship struck, it being in a storm, the sea 
broke so high, and so continually over her, that the 
men were not able to bear it, and were strangled with 
the constant rushing in of the water, as much as if 
they had been under water. Besides the dog, there 
was nothing left in the ship that had life; nor any 
goods that I could see, but what were spoiled by the 
water. There were some casks of liquor, whether 
wine or brandy I knew not, which lay lower in the 
hold, and which, the water being ebbed out, I could 
see; but they were too big to meddle with. I saw 
several chests, which I believed belonged to some of 
the seamen; and I got two of them into the boat, 
without examining what was in them. 

Had the stern of the ship been fixed, and the fore- 
part broken off, I am persuaded I might have made 
a good voyage; for by what I found in these two 


244 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


chests, I had room to suppose the ship had a great 
deal of wealth on board; and if I may guess by the 
course she steered, she must have been bound from 
the Buenos Ayres, or the Rio de la Plata, in the 
south part of America, beyond the Brazils, to the 
Havana, in the Gulf of Mexico, and so perhaps to 
Spain. She had, no doubt, a great treasure in her, 
but of no use, at that time, to anybody; and what 
became of the rest of her people, I then knew not. 

I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of 
liquor, of about twenty gallons, which I got into my 
boat with much difficulty. There were several mus- 
kets in a cabin, and a great powder-horn, with about 
four pounds of powder in it. As for the muskets, I 
had no occasion for them, so I left them, but took the 
powder-horn. I took a fire-shovel and tongs, which 
I wanted extremely; as also two little brass kettles, 
a copper pot to make chocolate, and a gridiron. And 
with this cargo, and the dog, I came away, the tide 
beginning to make home again; and the same even- 
ing, about an hour within night, I reached the island 
again, weary and fatigued to the last degree. 

I reposed that night in the boat; and in the morn- 
ing I resolved to harbor what I had gotten in my 
new cave, not to carry it home to my castle. After 
refreshing myself, I got all my cargo on shore, and 
began to examine the particulars. The cask of liquor 
I found to be a kind of rum, but not such as we had 
at the Brazils, and, in a word, not at all good. But 
when I came to open the chests, I found several things 
of great use to me. For example, I found in one a 
fine case of bottles, of an extraordinary kind, and 
filled with cordial waters, fine, and very good; the 
bottles held about three pints each, and were tipped 




THE WRECK. 


245 


with silver. I found two pots of very good suecades, 
or sweetmeats, so fastened also on top that the salt 
water had not hurt them ; and two more of the same, 
which the water had spoiled. I found some very 
good shirts, which were very welcome to me; and 
about a dozen and half of linen white handkerchiefs 
and colored neckcloths. The former were also very 
welcome, being exceeding refreshing to wipe my face 
in a hot day. Besides this, when I came to the till in 
the chest, 1 found there three great bags of pieces of 
eight, which held out about eleven hundred pieces in 
all; and in one of them, wrapped up in a paper, six 
doubloons of gold, and some small bars or wedges of 
gold. I suppose they might all weigh near a pound. 

The other chest I found had some clothes in it, but 
of little value; but by the circumstances, it must 
have belonged to the gunner’s mate; though there 
was no powder in it, but about two pounds of fine 
glazed powder, in three small fiasks, kept, I suppose, 
for charging their fowling-pieces on occasion. Upon 
the whole, I got very little by this voyage that was 
of any use to me; for as to the money, I had no 
manner of occasion for it; ’twas to me as the dirt 
under my feet; and I would have given it all for 
three or four pair of English shoes and stockings, 
which were things I greatly wanted, but had not had 
on my feet now for many years. I had indeed gotten 
two pair of shoes now, which I took off of the feet 
of the two drowned men whom I saw in the wreck, 
and I found two pair more in one of the chests, which 
were very welcome to me ; but they were not like our 
English shoes, either for ease or service, being rather 
what we call pumps than shoes. I found in this sea- 
man’s chest about fifty pieces of eight in royals, but no 


246 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


gold. I suppose this belonged to a poorer man than 
the other, which seemed to belong to some officer. 

Well, however, I lugged this money home to my 
cave, and laid it up, as I had done that before which 
I brought from our own ship ; but it was great pity, 
as I said, that the other part of this ship had not 
come to my share, for I am satisfied I might have 
loaded my canoe several times over with money, 
which, if I had ever escaped to England, would have 
lain here safe enough till I might have come again 
and fetched it. 

Having now brought all my things on shore, and 
secured them, I went back to my boat, and rowed or 
paddled her along the shore to her old harbor, where 
I laid her up, and made the best of my way to my 
old habitation, where I found everything safe and 
quiet. So I began to repose myself, live after my 
old fashion, and take care of my family affairs; and, 
for a while, I lived easy enough, only that I was 
more vigilant than I used to be, looked out oftener, 
and did not go abroad so much; and if at any time I 
did stir with any freedom, it was always to the east 
part of the island, where I was pretty well satisfied 
the savages never came, and where I could go with- 
out so many precautions, and such a load of arms and 
ammunition as I always carried with me if I went the 
other way. 

I lived in this condition near two years more ; but 
my unlucky head, that was always to let me know it 
was born to make my body miserable, was all this 
two years filled with projects and designs, how, if it 
were possible, I might get away from this island ; for 
sometimes I was for making another voyage to the 
wreck, though my reason told me that there was 


THE WRECK. 


247 


nothing left there worth the hazard of my voyage; 
sometimes for a ramble one way, sometimes another; 
and I believe verily, if I had had the boat that I went 
from Sallee in, I should have ventured to sea, bound 
anywhere, I knew not whither. 

I have been, in all my circumstances, a memento 
to those who are touched with the general plague of 
mankind, whence, for aught I know, one half of their 
miseries flow; I mean, that of not being satisfied 
with the station wherein God and Nature has placed 
them ; for not to look back upon my primitive condi- 
tion, and the excellent advice of my father, the oppo- 
sition to which was, as I may call it, my original sin^ 
my subsequent mistakes of the same kind had been 
the means of my coming into this miserable condi- 
tion; for had that Providence, which so happily had 
seated me at the Brazils as a planter, blessed me with 
confined desires, and I could have been contented to 
have gone on gradually, I might have been, by this 
time, I mean in the time of my being in this island, 
one of the most considerable planters in the Brazils ; 
nay, I am persuaded that by the improvements I had 
made in that little time I lived there, and the increase 
I should probably have made if I had stayed, I might 
have been worth an hundred thousand moidores. 
And what business had I to leave a settled fortune, 
a well-stocked plantation, improving and increasing, 
to turn supercargo to Guinea to fetch negroes, when 
patience and time would have so increased our stock 
at home, that we could have bought them at our own 
door from those whose business it was to fetch th'em ; 
and though it had cost us something more, yet the 
difference of that price was by no means worth saving 
at so* great a hazard. 


248 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


But as this is ordinarily the fate of young heads, 
so reflection upon the folly of it is as ordinarily the 
exercise of more years, or of the dear-bought experi- 
ence of time ; and so it was with me now. And yet, 
so deep had the mistake taken root in my temper 
that I could not satisfy myself in my station, but was 
continually poring upon the means and possibility of 
my escape from this place. And that I may, with 
the greater pleasure to the reader, bring on the re- 
maining part of my story, it may not be improper to 
give some account of my first conceptions on the sub- 
ject of this foolish scheme for my escape, and how, 
and upon what foundation, I acted. 

I am now to be supposed retired into my castle, 
after my late voyage to the wreck, my frigate laid up 
and secured under water, as usual, and my condition 
restored to what it was before. I had more wealth, 
indeed, than I had before, but was not at all the 
richer; for I had no more use for it than the Indians 
of Peru had before the Spaniards came there. 


CHAPTER XXII. 


THE LONGING FOR ESCAPE. 

It was one of the nights in the rainy season in 
March, the four and twentieth year of my first set- 
ting foot in this island of solitariness. I was lying 
in my bed, or hammock, awake, very well in health, 
had no pain, no distemper, no uneasiness of body, 
no, nor any uneasiness of mind, more than ordinary, 
but could by no means close my eyes, that is, so as 
to sleep; no, not a wink all night long, otherwise 
than as follows. 

It is as impossible as needless to set down the 
innumerable crowd of thoughts that whirled through 
that great thoroughfare of the brain, the memory, in 
this night’s time. I ran over the whole history of 
my life in miniature, or by abridgment, as I may 
call it, to my coming to this island, and also of the 
part of my life since I came to this island. In my 
reflections upon the state of my case since I came on 
shore on this island, I was comparing the happy pos- 
ture of my affairs in the first years of my habitation 
here compared to the life of anxiety, fear, and care 
which I had lived ever since I had seen the print of 
a foot in the sand ; not that I did not believe the sav- 
ages had frequented the island even all the while, and 
might have been several hundreds of them at times 
on shore there; but I had never known it, and was 
incapable of any apprehensions about it. My satis- 


250 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


faction was perfect, though my danger was the same; 
and I was as happy in not knowing my danger as if 
I had never really been exposed to it. This furnished 
my thoughts with many very profitable reflections, and 
particularly this one ; how infinitely good that Provi- 
dence is which has provided, in its government of 
mankind, such narrow bounds to his sight and know- 
ledge of things; and though he walks in the midst of 
so many thousand dangers, the sight of which, if dis- 
covered to him, would distract his mind and sink his 
spirits, he is kept serene and calm, by having the 
events of things hid from his eyes, and knowing 
nothing of the dangers which surround him. 

After these thoughts had for some time entertained 
me, I came to reflect seriously upon the real danger 
I had been in for so many years in this very island, 
and how I had walked about in the greatest security, 
and with all possible tranquillity, even when perhaps 
nothing but a brow of a hill, a great tree, or the 
casual approach of night had been between me and 
the worst kind of destruction, viz. , that of falling into 
the hands of cannibals and savages, who would have 
seized on me with the same view as I did of a goat 
or a turtle, and have thought it no more a crime to 
kill and devour me than I did of a pigeon or a cur- 
lew. I would unjustly slander myself if I should say 
I was not sincerely thankful to my great Preserver, 
to whose singular protection I acknowledged, with 
great humility, that all these unknown deliverances 
were due, and without which I must inevitably have 
fallen into their merciless hands. 

When these thoughts were over, my head was for 
some time taken up in considering the nature of these 
wretched creatures, I mean the savages, and how it 


THE LONGING FOR ESCAPE. 


251 


came to pass in the world that the wise Governor of 
all things should give up any of His creatures to such 
inhumanity; nay, to something so much below even 
brutality itself as to devour its own kind. But as 
this ended in some (at that time fruitless) specula- 
tions, it occurred to me to inquire what part of the 
world these wretches lived in ; how far off the coast 
was from whence they came ; what they ventured over 
so far from home for; what kind of boats they had; 
and why I might not order myself and my business 
so, that I might be as able to go over thither as they 
were to come to me. 

I never so much as troubled myself to consider 
what I should do with myself when I came thither; 
what would become of me, if I fell into the hands of 
the savages; or how I should escape from them, if 
they attempted me; no, nor so much as how it was 
possible for me to reach the coast, and not be at- 
tempted by some or other of them, without any pos- 
sibility of delivering myself; and if I should not fall 
into their hands, what I should do for provision, or 
whither I should bend my course. None of these 
thoughts, I say, so much as came in my way; but my 
mind was wholly bent upon the notion of my passing 
over in my boat to the mainland. I looked back 
upon my present condition as the most miserable that 
could possibly be ; that I was not able to throw my- 
self into anything, but death, that could be called 
worse; that if I reached the shore of the main, I 
might perhaps meet with relief, or I might coast 
along, as I did on the shore of Africa, till I came to 
some inhabited country, and where I might find some 
relief; and after all, perhaps I might fall in with 
some Christian ship that might take me in; and if 


252 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


the worse came to the worst, I could but die, which 
would put an end to all these miseries at once. Pray 
note,^ all this was the fruit of a disturbed mind, an 
impatient temper, made as it were desperate by the 
long continuance of my troubles, and the disappoint- 
ments I had met in the wreck I had been on board 
of, and where I had been so near the obtaining what 
I so earnestly longed for, viz., somebody to speak to, 
and to learn some knowledge from of the place where 
I was, and of the probable means of my deliverance. 
I say, I was agitated wholly by these thoughts. All 
my calm of mind, in my resignation to Providence, 
and waiting the issue of the dispositions of Heaven, 
seemed to be suspended; and I had, as it were, no 
power to turn my thoughts to anything but to the 
project of a voyage to the main, which came u23on me 
with such force, and such an impetuosity of desire, 
that it was not to be resisted. 

When this had agitated my thoughts for two hours, 
or more, with such violence that it set my very blood 
into a ferment, and my pulse beat as high as if I had 
been in a fever, merely with the extraordinary fervor 
of my mind about it. Nature, as if I had been fa- 
tigued and exhausted with the very thought of it, 
threw me into a sound sleep. One would have 
thought I should have dreamed of it, but I did not, 
nor of anything relating to it ; but I dreamed that as 
I was going out in the morning, as usual, from my 
castle, I saw upon the shore two canoes and eleven 
savages coming to land, and that they brought with 
them another savage, whom they were going to kill 
in order to eat him; when, on a sudden, the savage 
that they were going to kill jumped away, and ran 
for his life. And I thought, in my sleep, that he 


THE LONGING FOR ESCAPE. 


253 


came running into my little thick grove before my 
fortification to hide himself; and that I, seeing him 
alone, and not perceiving that the other sought him 
that way, showed myself to him, and smiling upon 
him, encouraged him; that he kneeled down to me, 
seeming to pray me to assist him; upon which I 
showed my ladder, made him go up, and carried him 
into my cave, and he became iny servant; and that 
as soon as I had gotten this man, I said to myself, 
“Now I may certainly venture to the mainland; for 
this fellow will serve me as a pilot, and will tell me 
what to do, and whither to go for provisions, and 
whither not to go for fear of being devoured; what 
places to venture into, and what to escape.” I waked 
with this thought, and was under such inexpressible 
impressions of joy at the prospect of my escape in my 
dream, that the disappointments which I felt upon 
coming to myself and finding it was no more than a 
dream were equally extravagant the other way, and 
threw me into a very great dejection of spirit. 

Upon this, however, I made this conclusion; that 
my only way to go about an attempt for an escape 
was, if possible, to get a savage into my possession; 
and, if possible, it should be one of their prisoners 
whom they had condemned to be eaten, and should 
bring thither to kill. But these thoughts still were 
attended with this difficulty, that it was impossible 
to effect this without attacking a whole caravan of 
them, and killing them all; and this was not only a 
very desperate attempt, and might miscarry, but, on 
the other hand, I had greatly scrupled the lawfulness 
of it to me; and my heart trembled at the thoughts 
of shedding so much blood, though it was for my 
deliverance. I need not repeat the arguments which 


254 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


occurred to me against this, they being the same 
mentioned before. But though I had other reasons 
to offer now, viz., that those men were enemies to my 
life, and would devour me if they could ; that it was 
self-preservation, in the highest degree, to deliver 
myself from this death of a life, and was acting in 
my own defence as much as if they were actually 
assaulting me, and the like; I say, though these 
things argued for it, yet the thoughts of shedding 
human blood for my deliverance were very terrible to 
me, and such as I could by no means reconcile myself 
to a great while. 

However, at last, after many secret disputes with 
myself, and after great perplexities about it, for all 
these arguments, one way and another, struggled in 
my head a long time, the eager prevailing desire of 
deliverance at length mastered all the rest, and I 
resolved, if possible, to get one of those savages into 
iriy hands, cost what it would. My next thing, then, 
was to contrive how to do it, and this indeed was 
very difficult to resolve on. But as I could pitch 
upon no probable means for it, so I resolved to put 
myself upon the watch, to see them when they came 
on shore, and leave the rest to the event, taking such 
measures as the opportunity should present, let be 
what would be. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 


MAN FRIDAY. 

With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set my- 
self upon the scout as often as possible, and indeed 
so often, till I was heartily tired of it; for it was 
above a year and half that I waited; and for great 
part of that time went out to the west end, and to the 
southwest corner of the island, almost every day, to 
see for canoes, but none appeared. This was very 
discouraging, and began to trouble me much ; though 
I cannot say that it did in this case, as it had done 
some time before that, viz., wear off the edge of my 
desire to the thing. But the longer it seemed to be 
delayed, the more eager I was for it. In a word, I 
was not at first so careful -to shun the sight of these 
savages, and avoid being seen by them, as I was now 
eager to be upon them. 

Besides, I fancied myself able to manage one, nay, 
two or three savages, if I had them, so as to make 
them entirely slaves to me, to do whatever I should 
direct them, and to prevent their being able at any 
time to do me any hurt. It was a great while that 
I pleased myself with this affair; but nothing still 
presented. All my fancies and schemes came to 
nothing, for no savages came near me for a great 
while. 

About a year and half after I had entertained 
these notions, and by long musing had, as it were. 


256 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


resolved them all into nothing, for want of an occa- 
sion to put them in execution, I was surprised, one 
morning early, with seeing no less than five canoes 
all on shore together on my side the island, and the 
people who belonged to them all landed, and out of 
my sight. The number of them broke all my mea- 
sures; for seeing so many, and knowing that they 
always came four, or six, or sometimes more, in a 
boat, I could not tell what to think of it, or how to 
take my measures to attack twenty or thirty men 
single-handed; so I lay still in my castle, perplexed 
and discomforted. However, I put myself into all 
the same postures for an attack that I had formerly 
provided, and was just ready for action if anything 
had presented. Having waited a good while, listen- 
ing to hear if they made any noise, at length, being 
very impatient, I set my guns at the foot of my lad- 
der, and clambered up to the top of the hill, by my 
two stages, as usual; standing so, however, that my 
head did not appear above the hill, so that they could 
not perceive me by any means. Here I observed, by 
the help of my prospective glass, that they were no 
less than thirty in number, that they had a fire kin- 
dled, that they had had meat dressed. How they 
had cooked it, that I knew not, or what it was ; but 
they were all dancing, in I know not how many bar- 
barous gestures and figures, their own way, round 
the fire. 

While I was thus looking on them, I perceived by 
my prospective two miserable wretches dragged from 
the boats, where, it seems, they were laid by, and 
were now brought out for the slaughter. I perceived 
one of them immediately fell, being knocked down, 
I suppose, with a club or wooden sword, for that was 


^. 4 ^^ FRIDAY. 


257 


their way, and two or three others were at work im- 
mediately, cutting him open for their cookery, while 
the other victun was left standing by himself, till 
they should be ready for him. In that very moment 
this poor wretch seeing himself a little at liberty. 
Nature inspired him with hopes of life, and he started 
away from them, and ran with incredible swiftness 
along the sands directly towards me, I mean towards 
that part of the coast where my habitation was. 

I was dreadfully frighted (that I must acknowledge) 
when I perceived him to run my way, and especially 
when, as I thought, I saw him pursued by the whole 
body ; and now I expected that part of my dream 
was coming to pass, and that he would certainly take 
shelter in my grove ; but I could not depend, by any 
means, upon my dream for the rest of it, viz., that 
the other savages would not pursue him thither, and 
find him there. However, I kept my station, and 
my spirits began to recover when I found that there 
was not above three men that followed him ; and still 
more was I encouraged when I found that he out- 
stripped them exceedingly in running, and gained 
ground of them ; so that if he could but hold it for 
half an hour, I saw easily he would fairly get away 
from them all. 

There was between them and my castle the creek, 
which I mentioned often at the first part of my story, 
when I landed my cargoes out of the ship; and this 
I saw plainly he must necessarily swim over, or the 
poor wretch would be taken there. But when the 
savage escaping came thither he made nothing of it, 
though the tide was then up; but plunging in, swam 
through in about thirty strokes or thereabouts, landed, 
and ran on with exceeding strength and swiftness. 


258 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


When the three persons came to the creek, I found 
that two of them could swim, but the third could not, 
and that, standing on the other side, he looked at the 
other, but went no further, and soon after went softly 
back, which, as it happened, was very well for him 
in the main. 

I observed, that the two who swam were yet more 
than twice as long swimming over the creek as the 
fellow was that fled from them. It came now very 
warmly upon my thoughts, and indeed irresistibly, 
that now was my time to get me a servant, and per- 
haps a companion or assistant, and that I was called 
plainly by Providence to save this poor creature’s 
life. I immediately run down the ladders with all 
possible expedition, fetched my two guns, for they 
were both but at the foot of the ladders, as I observed 
above, and getting up again, with the same haste, to 
the top of the hill, I crossed toward the sea, and 
having a very short cut, and all down hill, clapped 
myself in the way between the pursuers and the pur- 
sued, hallooing aloud to him that fled, who, looking 
back, was at first perhaps as much frighted at me as 
at them; but I beckoned with my hand to him to 
come back ; and, in the meantime, I slowly advanced 
towards the two that followed ; then rushing at once 
upon the foremost, I knocked him down with the 
stock of my piece. I was loath to fire, because I 
would not have the rest hear; though, at that dis- 
tance, it would not have been easily heard, and being 
out of sight of the smoke too, they would not have 
easily known what to make of it. Having knocked 
this fellow down, the other who pursued with him 
stopped, as if he had been frighted, and I advanced 
apace towards him ; but as I came nearer, I perceived 


MAN FRIDAY, 


259 


presently he had a bow and arrow, and was fitting it 
to shoot at me ; so I was then necessitated to shoot at 
him first, which I did, and killed him at the first 
shot. 

The poor savage who fied, but had stopped, though 
he saw both his enemies fallen and killed, as he 
thought, yet was so frighted with the fire and noise 
of my piece that he stood stock still, and neither 
came forward or went backward, though he seemed 
rather inclined to fly still than to come on. I hal- 
looed again to him, and made signs to come forward, 
which he easily understood, and came a little way, 
then stopped again, and then a little further, and 
stopped again; and I could then perceive that he 
stood trembling, as if he had been taken prisoner, 
and had just been to be killed, as his two enemies 
were. I beckoned him again to come to me, and 
gave him all the signs of encouragement that I could 
think of; and he came nearer and nearer, kneeling 
down every ten or twelve steps, in token of acknow- 
ledgment for my saving his life. I smiled at him, 
and looked pleasantly, and beckoned to him to come 
still nearer. At length he came close to me, and 
then he kneeled down again, kissed the ground, and 
laid his head upon the ground, and taking me by the 
foot, set my foot upon his head. This, it seems, was 
in token of swearing to be my slave forever. I took 
him up, and made much of him, and encouraged him 
all I could. But there was more work to do yet ; for 
I perceived the savage whom I knocked down was 
not killed, but stunned with the blow, and began to 
come to himself; so I pointed to him, and showing 
him the savage, that he was not dead, upon this he 
spoke some words to me; and though I could not 


260 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


understand them, yet I thought they were pleasant 
to hear; for they were the first sound of a man’s 
voice that I had heard, my own excepted, for above 
twenty -five years. But there was no time for such 
reflections now. The savage who was knocked down 
recovered himself so far as to sit up upon the ground, 
and I perceived that my savage began to be afraid; 
but when I saw that, I presented my other piece at 
the man, as if I would shoot him. Upon this my 
savage, for so I call him now, made a motion to me 
to lend him my sword, which hung naked in a belt 
by my side; so I did. He no sooner had it but he 
runs to his enemy, and, at one blow, cut off his head 
as cleverly, no executioner in Germany could have 
done it sooner or better; which I thought very 
strange for one who, I had reason to believe, never 
saw a sword in his life before, except their own 
wooden swords. However, it seems, as I learned 
afterwards, they make their wooden swords so sharp, 
so heavy, and the wood is so hard, that they will cut 
off heads even with them, ay, and arms, and that at 
one blow too. When he had done this, he comes 
laughing to me in sign of triumph, and brought me 
the sword again, and with abundance of gestures, 
which I did not understand, laid it down, with the 
head of the savage that he had killed, just before me. 

But that which astonished him most was to know 
how I had killed the other Indian so far off ; so point- 
ing to him, he made signs to me to let him go to 
him ; so I bade him go, as well as I could. When 
he came to him, he stood like one amazed, looking at 
him, turned him first on one side, then on t’other, 
looked at the wound the bullet had made, which, it 
seems, was just in his breast, where it had made a 


MAN FRIDAY. 


261 


hole, and no great quantity of blood had followed; 
but he had bled inwardly, for he was quite dead. 
He took up his bow and arrows, and came back; so I 
turned to go away, and beckoned to him to follow me, 
making signs to him that more might come after them. 

Upon this he signed to me that he should bury 
them with sand, that they might not be seen by the 
rest if they followed; and so I made signs again to 
him to do so. He fell to work, and in an instant he 
had scraped a hole in the sand with his hands big 
enough to bury the first in, and then dragged him 
into it, and covered him, and did so also by the other. 
I believe he had buried them both in a quarter of an 
hour. Then calling him away, I carried him, not to 
my castle, but quite away to my cave, on the farther 
part of the island ; so I did not let my dream come 
to pass in that part, viz., that he came into my grove 
for shelter. 

Here I gave him bread and a bunch of raisins to 
eat, and a draught of water, which I found he was 
indeed in great distress for, by his running; and 
having refreshed him, I made signs for him to go lie 
down and sleep, pointing to a place where I had laid 
a great parcel of rice-straw, and a blanket upon it, 
which I used to sleep upon myself sometimes ; so the 
poor creature laid down, and went to sleep. 

He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well 
made, with straight strong limbs, not too large, tall 
and well-shaped, and, as I reckon, about twenty-six 
years of age. He had a very good countenance, not 
a fierce and surly aspect, but seemed to have some- 
thing very manly in his face ; and yet he had all the 
sweetness and softness of an European in his counte- 
nance too, especially when he smiled. His hair was 


262 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


long and black, not curled like wool; his forehead 
very high and large ; and a great vivacity and spark- 
ling sharpness in his eyes. The color of his skin was 
not quite black, but very tawny; and yet not of an 
ugty, yellow, nauseous tawny, as the Brazilians and 
Virginians, and other natives of America are, but of 
a bright kind of a dun olive color, that had in it 
something very agreeable, though not very easy to 
describe. His face was round and plump; his nose 
small, not flat like the negroes ; a very good mouth, 
thin lips, and his fine teeth well set, and white as 
ivory. 

After he had slumbered, rather than slept, about 
half an hour, he waked again, and comes out of the 
cave to me, for I had been milking my goats, which 
I had in the enclosure just by. When he espied me, 
he came running to me, laying himself down again 
upon the ground, with all the possible signs of an 
humble, thankful disposition, making a many antic 
gestures to show it. At last he lays his head flat 
upon the ground, close to my foot, and sets my other 
foot upon his head, as he had done before, and after 
this made all the signs to me of subjection, servitude, 
and submission imaginable, to let me know how he 
would serve me as long as he lived. I understood him 
in many things, and let him know I was very well 
pleased with him. In a little time I began to speak 
to him, and teach him to speak to me ; and, first, I 
made him know his name should be Friday, which 
was the day I saved his life. I called him so for the 
memory of the time. I likewise taught him to say 
master, and then let him know that was to be my 
name. I likewise taught him to say Yes and No, 
and to know the meaning of them. I gave him some 


MAN FRIDAY. 


263 


milk in an earthen pot, and let him see me drink it 
before him, and sop my bread in it; and I gave him 
a cake of bread to do the like, which he quickly com- 
plied with, and made signs that it was very good for 
him. 

I kept there with him all that night; but as soon 
as it was day, I beckoned to him to come with me, 
and let him know I would give him some clothes ; at 
which he seemed very glad, for he was stark naked. 
As we went by the place where he had buried the 
two men, he pointed exactly to the place, and showed 
me the marks that he had made to find them again, 
making signs to me that we should dig them up again, 
and eat them. At this I appeared very angry, ex- 
pressed my abhorrence of it, made as if I would 
vomit at the thoughts of it, and beckoned with my 
hand to him to come away; which he did immedi- 
ately, with great submission. I then led him up to 
the top of the hill, to see if his enemies were gone ; 
and pulling out my glass, I looked, and saw plainly 
the place where they had been, but no appearance of 
them or of their canoes; so that it was plain that 
they were gone, and had left their two comrades be- 
hind them, without any search after them. 

But I was not content with this discovery; but 
having now more courage, and consequently more 
curiosity, I takes my man Friday with me, giving 
him the sword in his hand, with the bow and arrows 
at his back, which I found he could use very dexter- 
^ ously, making him carry one gun for me, and I two 
for myself, and away we marched to the place where 
these creatures had been ; for I had a mind now to 
get some fuller intelligence of them. When I came 
to the place, my very blood ran chill in my veins, and 


264 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


my heart sunk within me, at the horror of the spec- 
tacle. Indeed, it was a dreadful sight, at least it was 
so to me, though Friday made nothing of it. The 
place was covered with human bones, the ground 
dyed with their blood, great pieces of flesh left here 
and there, half -eaten, mangled, and scorched; and, 
in short, all the tokens of the triumphant feast they 
had been making there, after a victory over their 
enemies. I saw three skulls, five hands, and the 
bones of three or four legs and feet, and abundance 
of other parts of the bodies; and Friday, by his 
signs, made me understand that they brought over 
four prisoners to feast upon ; that three of them were 
eaten up, and that he, pointing to himself, was the 
fourth; that there had been a great battle between 
them and their next king, whose subjects it seems he 
had been one of, and that they had taken a great 
number of prisoners ; all which were carried to several 
places by those that had taken them in the fight, in 
order to feast upon them, as was done here by these 
wretches upon those they brought hither. 

I caused Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, 
flesh, and whatever remained, and lay them together 
on a heap, and make a great fire upon it, and burn 
them all to ashes. I found Friday had still a han- 
kering stomach after some of the flesh, and was still 
a cannibal in his nature ; but I discovered so much 
abhorrence at the very thoughts of it, and at the 
least appearance of it, that he durst not discover it ; 
for I had, by some means, let him know that I would 
kill him if he offered it. 

When we had done this we came back to our castle, 
and there I fell to work for my man Friday; and, 
first of all, I gave him a pair of linen drawers, which 


MAN FRIDAY. 


265 


I had out of the poor gunner’s chest I mentioned, 
and which I found in the wreck ; and which, with a 
little alteration, fitted him very well. Then I made 
him a jerkin of goat’s skin, as well as my skill would 
allow, and I was now grown a tolerable good tailor ; 
and I gave him a cap, which I had made of a hare- 
skin, very convenient and fashionable enough; and 
thus he was clothed for the present tolerably well, 
and was mighty well pleased to see himself almost as 
well clothed as his master. It is true he went awk- 
wardly in these things at first; wearing the drawers 
was very awkward to him, and the sleeves of the 
waistcoat galled his shoulders, and the inside of his 
arms; but a little easing them where he complained 
they hurt him, and using himself to them, at length 
he took to theni very well. 

The next day after I came home to my hutch with 
him, 1 began to consider where I should lodge him. 
And that I might do well for him, and yet be per- 
fectly easy myself, I made a little tent for him in the 
vacant place between my two fortifications, in the 
inside of the last and in the outside of the first; and 
as there was a door or entrance there into my cave, 
I made a formal framed door-case, and a door to it 
of boards, and set it up in the passage, a little within 
the entrance; and causing the door to open on the 
inside, I barred it up in the night, taking in my lad- 
ders too; so that Friday could no way come at me in 
the inside of my innermost wall without making so 
much noise in getting over that it must needs waken 
me ; for my first wall had now a complete roof over 
it of long poles, covering all my tent, and leaning up 
to the side of the hill, which was again laid cross 
with smaller sticks instead of laths, and then thatched 


266 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


over a great thickness with the rice-straw, which was 
strong, like reeds; and at the hole or place which 
was left to go in or out by the ladder, I had placed 
a kind of trap-door, which, if it had been attempted 
on the outside, would not have opened at all, but 
would have fallen down, and made a great noise; 
and as to weapons, I took them all into my side 
every night. 

But I needed none of all this precaution ; for never 
man had a more faithful, loving, sincere servant 
than Friday was to me; without passions, sullenness, 
or designs, perfectly obliged and engaged ; ^ his very 
aflEections were tied to me, like those of a child to 
a father ; and I dare say he would have sacrificed his 
life for the saving mine, upon any occasion whatso- 
ever. The many testimonies he gave me of this put 
it out of doubt, and soon convinced me that I needed 
to use no precautions as to my safety on his account. 

This frequently gave me occasion to observe, and 
that with wonder, that however it had pleased God, 
in His providence, and in the government of the 
works of His hands, to take from so great a part of 
the world of His creatures the best uses to which their 
faculties and the powers of their souls are adapted, 
yet that He has bestowed upon them the same powers, 
the same reason, the same affections, the same senti- 
ments of kindness and obligation, the same passions 
and resentments of wrongs, the same sense of grati- 
tude, sincerity, fidelity, and all the capacities of doing 
good and receiving good, that He has given to us; 
and that when He pleases to offer to them occasions 
of exerting these, they are as ready, nay, more 
ready, to apply them to the right uses for which 
^ That is, under a sense of obligation and engagement. 


MAN FRIDAY. 


267 


they were bestowed than we are. And this made me 
very melancholy sometimes, in reflecting, as the sev- 
eral occasions presented, how mean a use we make of 
all these, even though we have these powers enlight- 
ened by the great lamp of instruction, the Spirit of 
God, and by the knowledge of His Word added to 
our understanding; and why it has pleased God to 
hide the like saving knowledge from so many millions 
of souls, who, if I might judge by this poor savage, 
would make a much better use of it than we did. 

From hence, I sometimes was led too far to invade 
the sovereignty of Providence, and as it were arraign 
the justice of so arbitrary a disposition of things, 
that should hide that light from some, and reveal it 
to others, and yet expect a like duty from both. But 
I shut it up, and checked my thoughts with this con- 
clusion: first, that we did not know by what light 
and law these should be condemned ; but that as God 
was necessarily, and, by the nature of His being, 
infinitely holy and just, so it could not be but that if 
these creatures were all sentenced to absence from 
Himself, it was on account of sinning against that 
light, which, as the Scripture says, was a law to 
themselves, and by such rules as their consciences 
would acknowledge to be just, though the foundation 
was not discovered to us; and, second, that still, as 
we are all the clay in the hand of the potter, no vessel 
could say to Him, “Why hast Thou formed me 
thus?” 

But to return to my new companion. I was greatly 
delighted with him, and made it my business to teach 
him everything that was proper to make him useful, 
handy, and helpful; but especially to make him 
speak, and understand me when I spake. And he 


268 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


was the aptest scholar that ever was ; and particularly 
was so merry, so constantly diligent, and so pleased 
when he could but understand me, or make me under- 
stand him, that it was very pleasant to me to talk to 
him. And now my life began to be so easy that I 
began to say to myself, that could I but have been 
safe from more savages, I cared not if I was never to 
remove from the place while I lived. 

After I had been two or three days returned to my 
castle, I thought that, in order to bring Friday off 
from his horrid way of feeding, and from the relish of 
a cannibal’s stomach, I ought to let him taste other 
flesh ; so I took him out with me one morning to the 
woods. I went, indeed, intending to kill a kid out 
of my own flock, and bring him home and dress it; 
but as I was going, I saw a she goat lying down in 
the shade, and two young kids sitting by her. I 
catched hold of Friday. “Hold,” says I, “stand 
still,” and made signs to him not to stir. Immedi- 
ately I presented my piece, shot and killed one of the 
kids. The poor creature, who had, at a distance in- 
deed, seen me kill the savage, his enemy, but did not 
know, or could imagine, how it was done, was sensi- 
bly surprised, trembled and shook, and looked so 
amazed that I thought he would have sunk down. 
He did not see the kid I had shot at, or perceive I 
had killed it, but ripped up his waistcoat to feel if 
he was not wounded; and, as I found presently, 
thought I was resolved to kill him ; for he came and 
kneeled down to me, and embracing my knees, said 
a great many things I did not understand; but I 
could easily see that the meaning was to pray me not 
to kill him. 

I soon found a way to convince him that I would do 


MAN FRIDAY. 


269 


him no harm; and taking him up by the hand, laughed 
at him, and pointing to the kid which I had killed, 
beckoned to him to run and fetch it, which he did; 
and while he was wondering, and looking to see how 
the creature was killed, I loaded my gun again; and 
by and by I saw a great fowl, like a hawk, sit upon 
a tree, within shot; so, to let Friday understand a 
little what I would do, I called him to me again, 
pointing at the fowl, which was indeed a parrot, 
though I thought it had been a hawk ; I say, point- 
ing to the parrot, and to my gun, and to the ground 
under the parrot, to let him see I would make it fall, 
I made him understand that I would shoot and kill 
that bird. Accordingly I fired, and bade him look, 
and immediately he saw the parrot fall. He stood 
like one frighted again, notwithstanding all I had 
said to him ; and I found he was the more amazed, 
because he did not see me put anything into the gun, 
but thought that there must be some wonderful fund 
of death and destruction in that thing, able to kill 
man, beast, bird, or anything near or far off; and 
the astonishment this created in him was such as 
could not wear off for a long time ; and I believe, if 
I would have let him, he would have worshipped me 
and my gun. As for the gun itself, he would not so 
much as touch it for several days after; but would 
speak to it, and talk to it, as if it had answered him, 
when he was by himself; which, as I afterwards 
learned of him, was to desire it not to kill him. 

Well, after his astonishment was a little over at 
this, I pointed to him to run and fetch the bird I had 
shot, which he did, but stayed some time; for the 
parrot, not being quite dead, was fluttered a good 
way off from the place where she fell. However, he 


270 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


found her, took her up, and brought her to me ; and 
as I had perceived his ignorance about the gun before, 
I took this advantage to charge the gun again, and 
not let him see me do it, that I might be ready for 
any other mark that might present. But nothing 
more offered at that time ; so I brought home the kid, 
and the same evening I took the skin off, and cut it 
out as well as I could; and having a pot for that 
purpose, I boiled or stewed some of the flesh, and 
made some very good broth; and after I had begun 
to eat some, I gave some to my man, who seemed 
very glad of it, and liked it very well; but that which 
was strangest to him was to see me eat salt with it. 
He made a sign to me that the salt was not good to 
eat, and putting a little into his own mouth, he 
seemed to nauseate it, and would spit and sputter at 
it, washing his mouth with fresh water after it. On 
the other hand, I took some meat in my mouth with- 
out salt, and I pretended to spit and sputter for want 
of salt, as fast as he had done at the salt. But it 
would not do ; he would never care for salt with his 
meat or in his broth ; at least, not a great while, and 
then but a very little. 

Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, 
I was resolved to feast him the next day with roast- 
ing a piece of the kid. This I did by hanging it 
before the Are in a string, as I had seen many people 
do in England, setting two poles up, one on each 
side of the fire, and one cross on the top, and tying 
the string to the cross stick, letting the meat turn 
continually. This Friday admired very much. But 
when he came to taste the flesh, he took so many 
ways to tell me how well he liked it, that I could not 
but understand him ; and at last he told me he would 


MAN FRIDAY. 271 

never eat man’s flesh any more, which I was very 
glad to hear. 

The next day I set him to work to beating some 
corn out, and sifting it in the manner I used to do, 
as I observed before ; and he soon understood how to 
do it as well as I, especially after he had seen what 
the meaning of it was, and that it was to make bread 
of; for after that I let him see me make my bread, 
and bake it too; and in a little time Friday was able to 
do all the work for me, as well as I could do it myself. 

I began now to consider that, having two mouths 
to feed instead of one, I must provide more ground 
for my harvest, and plant a larger quantity of corn 
than I used to do ; so I marked out a larger piece of 
land, and began the fence in the same manner as 
before, in which Friday not only worked very will- 
ingly and very hard, but did it very cheerfully; and 
I told him what it was for; that it was for corn to 
make more bread, because he was now with me, and 
that I might have enough for him and myself too. 
He appeared very sensible of that part, and let me 
know that he thought I had much more labor upon 
me on his account than I had for myself; and that 
he would work the harder for me, if I would tell him 
what to do. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 


THE CHRISTIANIZING OF FRIDAY. 

This was the pleasantest year of all the life I led 
in this place. Friday began to talk pretty well, and 
understand the names of almost everything I had 
occasion to call for, and of every place I had to send 
him to, and talk a great deal to me; so that, in 
short, I began now to have some use for my tongue 
again, which, indeed, I had very little occasion for 
before, that is to say, about speech. Besides the 
pleasure of talking to him, I had a singular satisfac- 
tion in the fellow himself. His simple, unfeigned 
honesty appeared to me more and more every day, 
and I began really to love the creature ; and, on his 
side, I believe he loved me more than it was possible 
for him ever to love anything before. 

I had a mind once to try if he had any hankering 
inclination to his own country again; and having 
learned him English so well that he could answer me 
almost any questions, I asked him whether the nation 
that he belonged to never conquered in battle? At 
which he smiled, and said, ‘‘Yes, yes, we always 
fight the better;” that is, he meant, always get the 
better in fight; and so we began the following dis- 
course: “You always fight the better,” said I. “How 
came you to be taken prisoner then, Friday?” 

Friday, My nation beat much for all that. 

Master, How beat? If your nation beat them, 
how came you to be taken ? 


THE CHRISTIANIZING OF FRIDAY. 273 


Friday. They more many than my nation in the 
place where me was; they take one, two, three, and 
me. My nation overheat them in the yonder place, 
where me no was; there my nation take one, two, 
great thousand. 

Master, But why did not your side recover you 
from the hands of your enemies then? 

Friday, They run one, two, three, and me, and 
make go in the canoe; my nation have no canoe that 
time. 

Master. Well, Friday, and what does your nation 
do with the men they take? Do they carry them 
away and eat them, as these did ? 

Friday, Yes, my nation eat mans too; eat all up. 

Master, Where do they carry them? 

Friday, Go to other place where they think. 

Master, Do they come hither? 

Friday, Yes, yes, they come hither; come other 
else place. 

Master, Have you been here with them? 

Friday, Yes, I been here. {Points to the N, W, 
side of the island^ which.^ it seems.^ leas their side,') 

By this I understood that my man Friday had for- 
merly been among the savages who used to come on 
shore on the farther part of the island, on the same 
man-eating occasions that he was now brought for; 
and, some time after, when I took the courage to 
carry him to that side, being the same I formerly 
mentioned, he presently knew the place, and told me 
he was there once when they eat up twenty men, two 
women, and one child. He could not tell twenty in 
English, but he numbered them by laying so many 
stones on a row, and pointing to me to tell them over. 

I have told this passage, because it introduces what 


274 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


follows ; that after I had had this discourse with him, 
I asked him how far it was from our island to the 
shore, and whether the canoes were not often lost. 
He told me there was no danger, no canoes ever lost; 
but that, after a little way out to the sea, there was 
a current and a wind, always one way in the morning, 
the other in the afternoon. 

This I understood to be no more than the sets of 
the tide, as going out or coming in ; but I afterwards 
understood it was occasioned by the gi’eat draught 
and reflux of the mighty river Oroonoko, in the 
mouth or the gulf of which river, as I found after- 
wards, our island lay; and this land which I per- 
ceived to the W. and N. W. was the great island 
Trinidad, on the north point of the mouth of the 
river. I asked Friday a thousand questions about 
the country, the inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and 
what nation were near. He told me all he knew, 
with the greatest openness imaginable. I asked him 
the names of the several nations of his sort of people, 
but could get no other name than Caribs ; from 
whence I easily understood that these were the Carib- 
bees, which our maps place on the part of America 
which reaches from the mouth of the river Oroonoko 
to Guiana, and onwards to St. Martha. He told me 
that up a great way beyond the moon, that was, be- 
yond the setting of the moon, which must be W. 
from their country, there dwelt white-bearded men, 
like me, and pointed to my great whiskers, which I 
mentioned before; and that they had killed much 
mans, — that was his word; by all which I understood 
he meant the Spaniards, whose cruelties in America 
had been spread over the whole countries, and was 
remembered by all the nations from father to son. 


THE CHRISTIANIZING OF FRIDAY. 275 


I inquired if lie could tell me liow I might come 
from this island and get among those white men. He 
told me, ‘‘Yes, yes, I might go in two canoe.” I 
could not understand what he meant, or make him 
describe to me what he meant by two canoe; till at 
last, with great difficulty, I found he meant it must 
be in a large great boat, as big as two canoes. 

This part of Friday’s discourse began to relish 
with me very well ; and from this time I entertained 
some hopes that, one time or other, I might find an 
opportunity to make my escape from this place, and 
that this poor savage might be a means to help me to 
do it. 

During the long time that Friday had now been 
with me, and that he began to speak to me, and un- 
derstand me, I was not wanting to lay a foundation 
of religious knowledge in his mind; particularly I 
asked him one time. Who made him? The poor crea- 
ture did not understand me at all, but thought I had 
asked who was his father. But I took it by another 
handle, and asked him who made the sea, the ground 
we walked on, and the hills and woods ? He told me 
it was one old Benamuckee, that lived beyond all. 
He could describe nothing of this great person, but 
that he was very old, much older, he said, than the 
sea or the land, than the moon or the stars. I asked 
him then, if this old person had made all things, why 
did not all things worship him? He looked very 
grave, and with a perfect look of innocence said, 
“All things do say O to him.” I asked him if the 
people who die in his country went away anywhere? 
He said, “Yes, they all went to Benamuckee.” 
Then I asked him whether these they eat up went 
thither too? He said, “Yes.” 


276 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


From these things I began to instruct him in the 
knowledge of the true God. I told him that the 
great Maker of all things lived up there, pointing up 
towards heaven; that He governs the world by the 
same power and providence by which He had made 
it; that He was omnipotent, could do everything for 
us, give everything to us, take everything from us; 
and thus, by degrees, I opened his eyes. He listened 
with great attention, and received with pleasure the 
notion of Jesus Christ being sent to redeem us, and 
of the manner of making our prayers to God, and 
His being able to hear us, even into heaven. He 
told me one day that if our God could hear us up 
beyond the sun. He must needs be a greater God 
than their Benamuckee, who lived but a little way 
off, and yet could not hear till they went up to the 
great mountains where he dwelt to speak to him. I 
asked him if he ever went thither to speak to him? 
He said. No ; they never went that were young men ; 
none went thither but the old men, whom he called 
their Oowokakee, that is, as I made him explain it 
to me, their religious, or clergy ; and that they went 
to say O (so he called saying prayers), and then came 
back, and told them what Benamuckee said. By 
this I observed that there is priestcraft even amongst 
the most blinded, ignorant pagans in the world ; and 
the policy of making a secret religion in order to pre- 
serve the veneration of the people to the clergy is not 
only to be found in the Roman, but perhaps among 
all religions in the world, even among the most bru- 
tish and barbarous savages. 

I endeavored to clear up this fraud to my man 
Friday, and told him that- the pretence of their old 
men going up to the mountains to say O to their god 


THE CHRISTIANIZING OF FRIDAY. 277 


Benamuckee was a cheat, and their bringing word 
from thence what he said was much more so ; that if 
they met with any answer, or spoke with any one 
there, it must be with an evil spirit; and then I en- 
tered into a long discourse with him about the devil, 
the original of him, his rebellion against God, his 
enmity to man, the reason of it, his setting hunself 
up in the dark parts of the world to be worshipped 
instead of God, and as God, and the many strata- 
gems he made use of to delude mankind to their 
ruin ; how he had a secret access to our passions and 
to our affections, to adapt his snares so to our incli- 
nations as to cause us even to be our own tempters, 
and to run upon our destruction by our own choice. 

I found it was not so easy to imprint right notions 
in his mind about the devil as it was about the being 
of a God. Nature assisted all my arguments to evi- 
dence to him even the necessity of a great First Cause 
and overruling, governing Power, a secret directing 
Providence, and of the equity and justice of paying 
homage to Him that made us, and the like. But 
there appeared nothing of all this in the notion of an 
evil spirit; of his original, his being, his nature, and 
above all, of his inclination to do evil, and to draw 
us in to do so too; and the poor creature puzzled me 
once in such a manner by a question merely natural 
and innocent, that I scarce knew what to say to him. 
I had been talking a great deal to him of the power 
of God, His omnipotence. His dreadful aversion to 
sin. His being a consuming fire to the workers of 
iniquity; how, as He had made us all. He could 
destroy us and all the world in a moment; and he 
listened with great seriousness to me all the while. 

After this I had been telling him how the devil 


278 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


was God’s enemy in the hearts of men, and used all 
his malice and skill to defeat the good designs of 
Providence, and to ruin the kingdom of Christ in the 
world, and the like. ‘‘Well,” says Friday, “but you 
say God is so strong, so great; is He not much 
strong, much might as the devil?” “Yes, yes,” says 
I, “Friday, God is stronger than the devil; God is 
above the devil, and therefore we pray to God to 
tread him down under our feet, and enable us to 
resist his temptations, and quench his fiery darts.” 
“But,” says he again, “if God much strong, much 
might as the devil, why God no kill the devil, so 
make him no more do wicked?” 

I was strangely surprised at his question ; and after 
all, though I was now an old man, yet I was but 
a young doctor, and ill enough qualified for a casuist, 
or a solver of difficulties ; and at first I could not tell 
what to say; so I pretended not to hear him, and 
asked him what he said. But he was too earnest for 
an answer to forget his question, so that he repeated 
it in the very same broken words as above. By this 
time I had recovered myself a little, and I said, 
“ God will at last punish him severely ; he is reserved 
for the judgment, and is to be cast into the bottom- 
less pit, to dwell with everlasting fire.” This did 
not satisfy Friday ; but he returns upon me, repeat- 
ing my words, “Reserve at last! me no understand; 
but why not kill the devil now? not kill great ago?” 
“You may as well ask me,” said I, “why God does 
not kill you and I when we do wicked things here 
that offend Him ; we are preserved to repent and be 
pardoned.” He muses awhile at this. “Well, well,” 
says he, mighty affectionately, “that well; so you, I, 
devil, all wicked, all preserve, repent, God pardon 


THE CHRISTIANIZING OF FRIDAY. 279 


all.” Here I was run down again hj him to the last 
degree, and it was a testimony to me how the mere 
notions of nature, though they will guide reasonable 
creatures to the knowledge of a God, and of a wor- 
ship or homage due to the supreme being of God, as 
the consequence of our nature, yet nothing but Divine 
revelation can form the knowledge of Jesus Christ, 
and of a redemption purchased for us, of a Mediator 
of the new covenant, and of an Intercessor at the 
footstool of God’s throne; I say, nothing but a reve- 
lation from heaven can form these in the soul, and 
that therefore the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ, I mean the Word of God, and the 
Spirit of God, promised for the guide and sanctifier 
of His people, are the absolutely necessary instruc- 
tors of the souls of men in the saving knowledge of 
God, and the means of salvation. 

I therefore diverted the present discourse between 
me and my man, rising up hastily, as upon some 
sudden occasion of going out ; then sending him for 
something a good way off, I seriously prayed to God 
that He would enable me to instruct savingly this 
poor savage, assisting, by His Spirit, the heart of the 
poor ignorant creature to receive the light of the 
knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling him to Him- 
self, and would guide me to speak so to him from the 
Word of God as his conscience might be convinced, 
his eyes opened, and his soul saved. When he came 
again to me, I entered into a long discourse with him 
upon the subject of the redemption of man by the 
Saviour of the world, and of the doctrine of the Gos- 
pel preached from heaven, viz., of repentance towards 
God, and faith in our blessed Lord Jesus. I then 
explained to him as well as I could why our blessed 


280 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


Eedeemer took not on Him the nature of angels, but 
the seed of Abraham; and how, for that reason, the 
fallen angels had no share in the redemption; that 
He came only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, 
and the like. 

I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge 
in all the methods I took for this poor creature’s in- 
struction, and must acknowledge, what I believe all 
that act upon the same principle will find, that in 
laying things open to him, I really informed and in- 
structed myself in many things that either I did not 
know,!, or had not fully considered before, but which 
occurred naturally to my mind upon my searching 
into them for the information of this poor savage. 
And I had more affection in my inquiry after things 
upon this occasion than ever I felt before; so that 
whether this poor wild wretch was the better for me 
or no, I had great reason to be thankful that ever he 
came to me. My grief set lighter upon me, my habi- 
tation grew comfortable to me beyond measure; and 
when I reflected, that in this solitary life which I had 
been confined to, I had not only been moved myself 
to look up to heaven, and to seek to the Hand that 
had brought me there, but was now to be made an 
instrument, under Providence, to save the life and, 
for aught I know, the soul of a poor savage, and 
bring him to the true knowledge of religion and of 
the Christian doctrine, that he might know Christ 
Jesus, to know whom is life eternal; — I say, when 
I reflected upon all these things, a secret joy run 
through every part of my soul, and I frequently re- 
joiced that ever I was brought to this place, which I 
had so often thought the most dreadful of all afflic- 
tions that could possibly have befallen me. 


THE CHRISTIANIZING OF FRIDAY. 281 


In this thankful frame I continued all the remain- 
der of my time, and the conversation which employed 
the hours between Friday and I ^ was such as made 
the three years which we lived there together perfectly 
and completely happy, if any such thing as complete 
happiness can be formed in a sublunary state. The 
savage was now a good Christian, a much better than 
I ; though I have reason to hope, and bless God for 
it, that we were equally penitent, and comforted, 
restored penitents. We had here the Word of God 
to read, and no farther off from His Spirit to instruct 
than if we had been in England. 

I always applied myself to reading the Scripture, 
to let him know, as well as I could, the meaning of 
what I read; and he again, by his serious inquiries 
and questions, made me, as I said before, a much 
better scholar in the Scripture knowledge than I 
should ever have been by my own private mere read- 
ing. Another thing I cannot refrain from observing 
here also, from experience in this retired part of my 
life, viz., how infinite and inexpressible a blessing it 
is that the knowledge of God, and of the doctrine of 
salvation by Christ Jesus, is so plainly laid down in 
the Word of God, so easy to be received and under- 
stood; that as the bare reading the Scripture made 
me capable of understanding enough of my duty to 
carry me directly on to the great work of sincere re- 
pentance for my sins, and laying hold of a Saviour for 
life and salvation, to a stated reformation in practice, 
and obedience to all God’s commands, and this with- 
out any teacher or instructor (I mean human); so the 

^ More than once in this book the reader will notice colloquial 
forms which a strict regard for grammar no longer sanctions. 
This same phrase occurred on page 278. 


282 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


same plain instruction sufficiently served to the en- 
lightening this savage creature, and bringing him to 
be such a Christian as I have known few equal to 
him in my life. 

As to all the disputes, wranglings, strife, and 
contention which has happened in the world about 
religion, whether niceties in doctrines, or schemes 
of church government, they were all perfectly useless 
to us; as, for aught I can yet see, they have been to 
all the rest in the world. We had the sure guide to 
heaven, viz., the Word of God; and we had, blessed 
be God, comfortable views of the Spirit of God teach- 
ing and instructing us by His Word, leading us into 
all truth, and making us both willing and obedient to 
the instruction of His Word; and I cannot see the 
least use that the greatest knowledge of the disputed 
points in religion, which have made such confusions 
in the world, would have been to us if we could have 
obtained it. But I must go on with the historical 
part of things, and take every part in its order. 

After Friday and I became more intimately ac- 
quainted, and that he could understand almost all I 
said to him, and speak fluently, though in broken 
English, to me, I acquainted him with my own story, 
or at least so much of it as related to my coming into 
the place ; how I had lived there, and how long. I 
let him into the mystery, for such it was to him, of 
gunpowder and bullet, and taught him how to shoot; 
I gave him a knife, which he was wonderfully de- 
lighted with, and I made him a belt, with a frog 
hanging to it, such as in England we wear hangers in ; 
and in the frog, instead of a hanger, I gave him a 
hatchet, which was not only as good a weapon in some 
cases, but much more useful upon other occasions. 


THE CHRISTIANIZING OF FRIDAY. 283 

I described to him the country of Europe, and par- 
ticularly England, which I came from ; how we lived, 
how we worshipped God, how we behaved to one an- 
other, and how we traded in ships to all parts of the 
world. I gave him an account of the wreck which I 
had been on board of, and showed him, as near as I 
could, the place where she lay; but she was all beaten 
in pieces before, and gone. 

I showed him the ruins of our boat, which we lost 
when we escaped, and which I could not stir with my 
whole strength then, but was now fallen almost all to 
pieces. Upon seeing this boat, Friday stood musing 
a great while, and said nothing. I asked him what 
it was he studied upon. At last says he, “Me see 
such boat like come to place at my nation.” 

I did not understand him a good while ; but at last, 
when I had examined further into it, I understood by 
him that a boat, such as that had been, came on shore 
upon the country where he lived; that is, as he ex- 
plained it, was driven thither by stress of weather. 
I presently imagined that some European ship must 
have been cast away upon their coast, and the boat 
might get loose and drive ashore; but was so dull 
that I never once thought of men making esckpe 
from a wreck thither, much less whence they might 
come; so I only inquired after a description of the 
boat. 

Friday described the boat to me well enough; but 
brought me better to understand him when he added 
with some warmth, “We save the white mans from 
drown.” Then I presently asked him if there was 
any white mans, as he called them, in the boat. 
“Yes,” he said, “the boat full of white mans.” I 
asked him how many. He told upon his fingers sev- 


284 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


enteen. I asked him then what became of them. He 
told me, “They live, they dwell at my nation.” 

This put new thoughts into my head; for I pres- 
ently imagined that these might be the men belong- 
ing to the ship that was cast away in sight of my 
island, as I now call it ; and who, after the ship was 
struck on the rock, and they saw her inevitably lost, 
had saved themselves in their boat, and were landed 
upon that wild shore among the savages. 

Upon this I inquired of him more critically what 
was become of them. He assured me they lived still 
there; that they had been there about four years; 
that the savages let them alone, and gave them vic- 
tuals to live. I asked him how it came to pass they 
did not kill them, and eat them. He said, “No, 
they make brother with them;” that is, as I under- 
stood him, a truce; and then he added, “They no eat 
mans but when make the war fight; ” that is to say, 
they never eat any men but such as come to fight 
with them arid are taken in battle. 

It was after this some considerable time that being 
on the top of the hill, at the east side of the island 
(from whence, as I have said, I had in a clear day 
discovered the main or continent of America), Fri- 
day, the weather being very serene, looks very ear- 
nestly towards the mainland, and, in a kind of sur- 
prise, falls a-jumping and dancing, and calls out to 
me, for I was at some distance from him. I asked 
him what was the matter. “O joy!” says he, “O 
glad! there see my country, there my nation! ” 

I observed an extraordinary sense of pleasure ap- 
peared in his face, and his eyes sparkled, and his 
countenance discovered a strange eagerness, as if he 
had a mind to be in his own country again ; and this 


THE CHRISTIANIZING OF FRIDAY. 285 


observation of mine put a great many thoughts into 
me, which made me at first not so easy about my new 
man Friday as I was before; and I made no doubt 
but that if Friday could get back to his own nation 
again, he would not only forget all his religion, but 
all his obligation to me ; and would be forward enough 
to give his countrymen an account of me, and come 
back perhaps with a hundred or two of them, and 
make a feast upon me, at which he might be as merry 
as he used to be with those of his enemies, when they 
were taken in war. 

But I wronged the poor honest creature very much, 
for which I was very sorry afterwards. However, as 
my jealousy increased, and held me some weeks, I 
was a little more circumspect, and not so familiar and 
kind to him as before ; in which I was certainly in 
the wrong too, the honest, grateful creature having 
no thought about it but what consisted with the best 
principles, both as a religious Christian and as a 
grateful friend, as appeared afterwards to my full 
satisfaction. 

While my jealousy of him lasted, you may be sure 
I was every day pumping him, to see if he would dis- 
cover any of the new thoughts which I suspected were 
in him ; but I found everything he said was so honest 
and so innocent that I could find nothing to nourish 
my suspicion ; and, in spite of all my uneasiness, he 
made me at last entirely his own again, nor did he 
in the least perceive that I was uneasy, and therefore 
I could not suspect him of deceit. 

One day, walking up the same hill, but the weather 
being hazy at sea, so that- we could not see the conti- 
nent, I called to him, and said, “Friday, do not you 
wish yourself in your own country, your own na- 


286 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


tion?” ‘‘Yes,” lie said, “I be much O glad to be at 
my own nation.” “What would you do there?” 
said I. “Would you turn wild again, eat men’s 
flesh again, and be a savage as you were before?” 
He looked full of concern, and shaking his head said, 
“No, no; Friday tell them to live good; tell them to 
pray God; tell them to eat corn -bread, cattle-flesh, 
milk, no eat man again.” “Why then,” said I to 
him, “they will kill you.” He looked grave at that, 
and then said, “No, they no kill me, they willing 
love learn.” He meant by this they would be willing 
to learn. He added, they learned much of the 
bearded mans that come in the boat. Then I asked 
him if he would go back to them. He smiled at 
that, and told me he .could not swim so far. I told 
him I would make a canoe for him. He told me he 
would go if I would go with him. “I go! ” says I; 
“why, they will eat me if I come there.” “No, no,” 
says he, “me make they no eat you; me make they 
much love you.” He meant, he would tell them how 
I had killed his enemies, and saved his life, and so 
he would make them love me. Then he told me, as 
well as he could, how kind they were to seventeen 
white men, or bearded men, as he called them, who 
came on shore there in distress. 


CHAPTER XXV. 


PLANS TO BEACH THE MAINLAND. 

From this time I confess I had a mind to venture 
over, and see if I could possibly join with these 
bearded men, who, I made no doubt, were Spaniards 
or Portuguese ; not doubting but, if I could, we might 
find some method to escape from thence, being upon 
the continent, and a good company together, better 
than I could from an island forty miles off the shore, 
and alone, without help. So, after some days, I took 
Friday to work again, by way of discourse, and told 
him I would give him a boat to go back to his own 
nation ; and accordingly I carried him to my frigate, 
which lay on the other side of the island, and having 
cleared it of water, for I always kept it sunk in the 
water, I brought it out, showed it him, and we both 
went into it. 

I found he was a most dexterous fellow at manag- 
ing it, would make it go almost as swift and fast 
again as I could. So when he was in I said to him, 
“Well now, Friday, shall we go to your nation?” 
He looked very dull at my saying so, which, it seems, 
was because he thought the boat too small to go so 
far. I told him then I had a bigger; so the next 
day I went to the place where the first boat lay which 
I had made, but which I could not get into water. 
He said that was big enough; but then, as I had 
taken no care of it, and it had lain two or three and 


288 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


twenty years there, the sun had split and dried it, 
that it was in a manner rotten. Friday told me such 
a boat would do very well, and would carry “much 
enough victual, drink, bread;” that was his way of 
talking. 

Upon the whole, I was by this time so fixed upon 
my design of going over with him to the continent, 
that I told him we would go and make one as big as 
that, and he should go home in it. He answered not 
one word, but looked very grave and sad. I asked 
him what was the matter with him? He asked me 
again thus, “Why you angry mad with Friday? 
what me done?” I asked him what he meant. I 
told him I was not angry with him at all. “No an- 
gry! no angry! ” says he, repeating the words several 
times. “Why send Friday home away to my na- 
tion?” “Why,” says I, “Friday, did you not say 
you wished you were there?” “Yes, yes,” says he, 
“wish be both there; no wish Friday there no mas- 
ter there.” In a word, he would not think of going 
there without me. “I go there, Friday!” says I; 
“what shall I do there?” He turned very quick 
upon me at this: “You do great deal much good,” 
says he; “you teach wild mans to be good, sober, 
tame mans ; you tell them know God, pray God, and 
live new life.” “Alas! Friday,” says I, “thouknow- 
est not what thou sayest. I am but an ignorant man 
myself.” “Yes, yes,” says he, “you teachee me 
good, you teachee them good.” “No, no, Friday,” 
says I, “you shall go without me; leave me here to 
live by myself, as I did before.” He looked confused 
again at that word, and running to one of the hatch- 
ets which he used to wear, he takes it up hastily, 
comes and gives it me. “What must I do with 


PLANS TO REACH THE MAINLAND. 289 


this?” says I to him. “You take kill Friday,” says 
he. “What must I kill you for?” said I again. 
He returns very quick, “What you send Friday 
away for? Take kill Friday, no send Friday away.” 
This he spoke so earnestly that I saw tears stand in 
his eyes. In a word, I so plainly discovered the ut- 
most affection in him to me, and a firm resolution in 
him, that I told him then, and often after, that I 
would never send him away from me if he was will- 
ing to stay with me. 

Upon the whole, as I found by all his discourse a 
settled affection to me, and that nothing should part 
him from me, so I found all the foundation of his 
desire to go to his own country was laid in his ardent 
affection to the people, and his hopes of my doing 
them good; a thing which, as I had no notion of 
myself, so I had not the least thought or intention or 
desire of undertaking it. But still I found a strong 
inclination to my attempting an escape, as above, 
founded on the supposition gathered from the dis- 
course, viz., that there were seventeen bearded men 
there; and, therefore, without any more delay I went 
to work with Friday to find out a great tree proper to 
fell, and make a large ‘peviagna^ or canoe, to under- 
take the voyage. There were trees enough in the 
island to have built a little fleet, not of periagiias 
and canoes, but even of good large vessels. But the 
main thing I looked at was, to get one so near the 
water that we might launch it when it was made, to 
avoid the mistake I committed at first. 

At last Friday pitched upon a tree, for I found he 
knew much better than I what kind of wood was fit- 
test for it ; nor can I tell, to this day, what wood to 
call the tree we cut down, except that it was very like 


290 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


the tree we call fustic, or between that and the Nica- 
ragua wood, for it was much of the same color and 
smell. Friday was for burning the hollow or cavity 
of this tree out, to make it for a boat, but I showed 
him how rather to cut it out with tools; which, after 
I had showed him how to use, he did very handily ; 
and in about a month’s hard labor we finished it, and 
made it very handsome; especially when, with our 
axes, which I showed him how to handle, we cut and 
hewed the outside into the true shape of a boat. 
After this, however, it cost us near a fortnight’s time 
to get her along, as it were inch by inch, upon great 
rollers into the water; but when she was in, she 
would have carried twenty men with great ease. 

When she was in the water, and though she was so 
big, it amazed me to see with what dexterity and 
how swift my man Friday would manage her, turn 
her, and paddle her along. So I asked him if he 
would, and if we might venture over in her. “Yes,” 
he said, “he venture over in her very well, though 
great blow wind.” However, I had a farther design 
that he knew nothing of, and that was to make a 
mast and sail, and to fit her with an anchor and 
cable. As to a mast, that was easy enough to get; 
so I pitched upon a straight young cedar-tree, which 
I found near the place, and which there was great 
plenty of in the island ; and I set Friday to work to 
cut it down, and gave him directions how to shape 
and order it. But as to the sail, that was my par- 
ticular care. I knew I had old sails, or rather pieces 
of old sails enough; but as I had had them now 
twenty-six years by me, and had not been very care- 
ful to preserve them, not imagining that I should 
ever have this kind of use for them, I did not doubt 


PLANS TO REACH THE MAINLAND. 291 


but they were all rotten, and, indeed, most of them 
were so. However, I found two pieces which ap- 
peared pretty good, and with these I went to work, 
and with a great deal of pains, and awkward, tedious 
stitching (you may be sure) for want of needles, I at 
length made a three-cornered ugly thing, like what 
we call in England a shoulder-of-mutton sail, to go 
with a boom at bottom, and a little short sprit at the 
top, such as usually our ships’ long-boats sail with, 
and such as I best knew how to manage ; because it 
was such a one as I had to the boat in which I made 
my escape from Barbary, as related in the first part 
of my story. 

I was near two months performing this last work, 
viz., rigging and fitting my mast and sails; for I fin- 
ished them very complete, making a small stay, and 
a sail, or foresail, to it, to assist, if we should turn 
to windward; and, which was more than all, I fixed 
a rudder to the stern of her to steer with ; and though 
I was but a bungling shipwright, yet as I knew the 
usefulness, and even necessity, of such a thing, I 
applied myself with so much pains to do it that at 
last I brought it to pass; though, considering the 
many dull contrivances I had for it that failed, I 
think it cost me almost as much labor as making the 
boat. 

After all this was done, too, I had my man Friday 
to teach as to what belonged to the navigation of my 
boat; for though he knew very well how to paddle 
a canoe, he knew nothing what belonged to a sail and 
a rudder; and was the most amazed when he saw me 
work the boat to and again in the sea by the rudder, 
and how the sail jibbed, and filled this way, or that 
way, as the course we sailed changed; I say, when he 


292 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


saw this, he stood like one astonished and amazed. 
However, with a little use I made all these things 
familiar to him, and he became an expert sailor, ex- 
cept that as to the compass I could make him under- 
stand very little of that. On the other hand, as there 
was very little cloudy weather, and seldom or never 
any fogs in those parts, there was the less occasion 
for a compass, seeing the stars were always to be 
seen by night, and the shore by day, except in the 
rainy seasons, and then nobody cared to stir abroad, 
either by land or sea. 

I was now entered on the seven and twentieth year 
of my captivity in this place; though the three last 
years that I had this creature with me ought rather 
to be left out of the account, my habitation being 
quite of another kind than in all the rest of the time. 
I kept the anniversary of my landing here with the 
same thankfulness to God for His mercies as at first; 
and if I had such cause of acknowledgment at first, 
I had much more so now, having such additional tes- 
timonies of the care of Providence over me, and the 
great hopes I had of being effectually and speedily 
delivered; for I had an invincible impression upon 
my thoughts that my deliverance was at hand, and 
that I should not be another year in this place. 
However, I went on with my husbandry, digging, 
planting, fencing, as usual. I gathered and cured 
my grapes, and did every necessary thing as before. 

The rainy season was, in the meantime, upon me, 
when I kept more within doors than at other times; 
so I had stowed our new vessel as secure as we could, 
bringing her up into the creek, where, as I said in 
the beginning, I landed my rafts from the ship ; and 
hauling her up to the shore at high-water mark, I 


PLANS TO REACH THE MAINLAND. 293 


made my man Friday dig a little dock, just big 
enough to hold her, and just deep enough to give her 
water enough to float in; and then, when the tide 
was out, we made a strong dam cross the end of it, 
to keep the water out ; and so she lay dry, as to the 
tide from the sea; and to keep the rain off, we laid 
a great many boughs of trees, so thick that she was 
as well thatched as a house ; and thus we waited for 
the month of November and December, in which I 
designed to make my adventure. 


CHAPTER XXVI. 


THE FIGHT WITH CANNIBALS. 

When the settled season began to come in, as the 
thought of my design returned with the fair weather, 
I was preparing daily for the voyage ; and the first 
thing I did was to lay by a certain quantity of provi- 
sions, being the stores for our voyage ; and intended, 
in a week or a fortnight’s time, to open the dock, 
and launch out our boat. I was busy one morning 
upon something of this kind, when I called to Friday, 
and bid him go to the seashore and see if he could 
find a turtle, or tortoise, a thing which we generally 
got once a week, for the sake of the eggs as well as 
the flesh. Friday had not been long gone when he 
came running back, and flew over my outer wall, or 
fence, like one that felt not the ground, or the steps 
he set his feet on ; and before I had time to speak to 
him, he cries out to me, ‘‘O master! O master! O 
sorrow! O bad!” “What’s the matter, Friday?” 
says I. “O yonder, there,” says he, “one, two, 
three canoe! one, two, three! ” By his way of speak- 
ing, I concluded there were six; but, on inquiry, I 
found it was but three. “Well, Friday,” says I, 
“do not be frighted.” So I heartened him up as 
well as I could. However, I saw the poor fellow 
was most terribly scared; for nothing ran in his head 
but that they were come to look for him, and would 
cut him in pieces, and eat him ; and the poor fellow 


THE FIGHT WITH CANNIBALS. 


295 


trembled so that I scarce knew what to do with him. 
I comforted him as well as I could, and told him I 
was in as much danger as he, and that they would 
eat me as well as him. ‘‘But,” says I, “Friday, we 
must resolve to fight them. Can you fight, Friday? ” 
“Me shoot,” says he; “but there come many great 
number.” “No matter for that,” said I again; “our 
guns will fright them that we do not kill.” So I 
asked him whether, if I resolved to defend him, he 
would defend me, and stand by me, and do just as 
I bid him. He said, “Me die when you bid die, 
master.” So I went and fetched a good dram of 
rum, and gave him; for I had been so good a hus- 
band of my rum that I had a great deal left. When 
,he had drank it, I made him take the two fowling- 
pieces, which we always carried, and load them with 
large swan-shot, as big as small pistol-bullets. Then 
I took four muskets, and loaded them with two slugs 
and five small bullets each; and my two pistols I 
loaded with a brace of bullets each. I hung my 
great sword, as usual, naked by my side, and gave 
Friday his hatchet. 

When I had thus prepared myself, I took my pro- 
spective glass, and went up to the side of the hill to 
see what I could discover; and I found quickly, by 
my glass, that there were one and twenty savages, 
three prisoners, and three canoes, and that their 
whole business seemed to be the triumphant banquet 
upon these three human bodies; a barbarous feast 
indeed, but nothing more than, as I had observed, 
was usual with them. 

I observed also that they were landed, not where 
they had done when Friday made his escape, but 
nearer to my creek, where the shore was low, and 


296 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


where a thick wood came close almost down to the 
sea. This, with the abhorrence of the inhuman er- 
rand these wretches came about, filled me with such 
indignation that I came down again to Friday, and 
told him I was resolved to go down to them, and kill 
them all, and asked him if he would stand by me. 
He was now gotten over his fright, and his spirits 
being a little raised with the dram I had given him, 
he was very cheerful, and told me, as before, he 
would die when I bid die. 

In this fit of fury, I took first and divided the arms 
which I had charged, as before, between us. I gave 
Friday one pistol to stick in his girdle, and three 
guns upon his shoulder; and I took one pistol, and 
the other three myself, and in this posture we marched 
out. I took a small bottle of rum in my pocket, and 
gave Friday a large bag with more powder and bullet; 
and as to orders, I charged him to keep close behind 
me, and not to stir, or shoot, or do anything, till I 
bid him, and in the meantime not to speak a word. 
In this posture I fetched a compass to my right hand 
of near a mile, as well to get over the creek as to get 
into the wood, so that I might come within shot of 
them before I should be discovered, which I had seen, 
by my glass, it was easy to do. 

While I was making this march, my former 
thoughts returning, I began to abate my resolution. 
I do not mean that I entertained any fear of their 
number; for as they were naked, unarmed wretches, 
’tis certain I was superior to them; nay, though I 
had been alone. But it occurred to my thoughts 
what call, what occasion, much less what necessity, 
I was in to go and dip my hands in blood, to attack 
people who had neither done or intended me any 


THE FIGHT WITH CANNIBALS. 


297 


wrong; who, as to me, were innocent, and whose bar- 
barous customs were their own disaster; being in 
them a token indeed of God’s having left them, with 
the other nations of that part of the world, to such 
stupidity, and to such inhuman courses ; but did not 
call me to take upon me to be a judge of their actions, 
much less an executioner of His justice; that when- 
ever He thought fit. He would take the cause into 
His own hands, and by national vengeance punish 
them, as a people, for national crimes; but that, in 
the meantime, it was none of my business; that, it 
was true, Friday might justify it, because he was a 
declared enemy, and in a state of war with those 
very particular people, and it was lawful for him to 
attack them; but I could not say the same with re- 
spect to me. These things were so warmly pressed 
upon my thoughts all the way as I went, that I re- 
solved I would only go and place myself near them, 
that I might observe their, barbarous feast, and that 
I would act then as God should direct; but that, 
unless something offered that was more a call to me 
than yet I knew of, I would not meddle with them. 

With this resolution I entered the wood, and with 
all possible wariness and silence, Friday following 
close at my heels, I marched till I came to the skirt 
of the wood, on the side which was next to them; 
only that one corner of the wood lay between me and 
them. Here I called softly to Friday, and showing 
him a great tree, which was just at tha corner of the 
wood, I bade him go to the tree and bring me word 
if he could see there plainly what they were doing. 
He did so, and came immediately back to me, and 
told me they might be plainly viewed there; that 
they were all about their fire, eating the flesh of one 


298 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


of tlieir prisoners, and that another lay bound upon 
the sand, a little from them, which, he said, they 
would kill next; and, which fired all the very soul 
within me, he told me it was not one of their nation, 
but one of the bearded men, whom he had told me 
of, that came to their country in the boat. I was 
filled with horror at the very naming the white, 
bearded man; and going to the tree, I saw plainly, 
by my glass, a white man, who lay upon the beach 
of the sea, with his hands and his feet tied with flags, 
or things like rushes, and that he was an European, 
and had clothes on. 

There was another tree, and a little thicket beyond 
it, about fifty yards nearer to them than the place 
where I was, which, by going a little way about, I 
saw I might come at undiscovered, and that then I 
should be within half shot of them ; so I withheld my 
passion, though I was indeed enraged to the highest 
degree; and going back about twenty paces, I got 
behind some bushes, which held all the way till I 
came to the other tree; and then I came to a little 
rising ground, which gave me a full view of them, at 
the distance of about eighty yards. 

I . had now not a moment to lose, for nineteen of 
the dreadful wretches sat upon the ground, all close 
huddled together, and had just sent the other two to 
butcher the poor Christian, and bring him, perhaps 
limb by limb, to their fire ; and they were stooped 
down to untie the bands at his feet. I turned to 
Friday: ‘‘Now, Friday,” said I, “do as I bid thee.” 
Friday said he would. “Then, Friday,” says I, “do 
exactly as you see me do; fail in nothing.” So I 
set down one of the muskets and the fowling-piece 
upon the ground, and Friday did the like by his; and 


THE FIGHT WITH CANNIBALS. 299 

with the other musket I took my aim at the savages, 
bidding him do the like. Then asking him if he was 
ready, he said, “Yes.” “Then fire at them,^’ said I; 
and the same moment I fired also. 

Friday took his aim so much better than I that 
on the side that he shot he killed two of them, and 
wounded three more; and on my side I killed one, 
and wounded two. They were, you may be sure, in 
a dreadful consternation ; and all of them who were 
not hurt jumped up upon their feet, but did not im- 
mediately know which way to run, or which way to 
look, for they knew not from whence their destruction 
came. Friday kept his eyes close upon me that, as 
I had bid him, he might observe what I did; so as 
soon as the first shot was made I threw down the 
piece, and took up the fowling-piece, and Friday did 
the like. He sees me cock and present; he did the 
same again. “Are you ready, Friday? ” said I. 
“Yes,” says he. “Let fly, then,” says I, “in the 
name of God!” and with that I fired again among 
the amazed wretches, and so did Friday; and as our 
pieces were now loaded with what I called swan-shot, 
or small pistol-bullets, we found only two drop, but 
so many were wounded that they ran about yelling 
and screaming like mad creatures, all bloody, and 
miserably wounded most of them ; whereof three more 
fell quickly after, though not quite dead. 

“Now, Friday,” says I, laying down the dis- 
charged pieces, and taking up the musket which was 
yet loaded, “follow me,” says I, which he did with 
a great deal of courage; upon which I rushed out of 
the wood, and showed myself, and Friday close at 
my foot. As soon as I perceived they saw me, I 
shouted as loud as I could, and bade Friday do so 


300 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


too; and running as fast as I could, which, by the 
way, was not very fast, being loaden with arms as I 
was, I made directly towards the poor victim, who 
was, as I said, lying upon the beach, or shore, be- 
tween the place where they sat and the sea. The 
two butchers, who were just going to work with him, 
had left him at the surprise of our first fire, and fled 
in a terrible fright to the seaside, and had jumped 
into a canoe, and three more of the rest made the 
same way. 1 turned to Friday, and bid him step 
forwards and fire at them. He understood me imme- 
diately, and running about forty yards, to be near 
them, he shot at them, and I thought he had killed 
them all, for I saw them all fall of a heap into the 
boat; though I saw two of them up again quickly. 
However, he killed two of them, and wounded the 
third, so that he lay down in the bottom of the boat 
as if he had been dead. 

While my man Friday fired at them, I pulled out 
my knife and cut the flags that bound the poor vic- 
tim ; and loosing his hands and feet, I lifted him up, 
and asked him in the Portuguese tongue what he was. 
He answered in Latin, “Christianas;” but was so 
weak and faint that he could scarce stand or speak. 
I took my bottle out of my pocket and gave it him, 
making signs that he should drink, which he did ; and 
I gave him a piece of bread, which he eat. Then I 
asked him what countryman he was; and he said, 
“Espagniole; ” and being a little recovered, let me 
know, by all the signs he could possibly make, how 
much he was in my debt for his deliverance. “ Seign- 
ior,” said I, with as much Spanish as I could make 
up, “we will talk afterwards, but we must fight now. 
If you have any strength left, take this pistol and 


THE FIGHT WITH CANNIBALS. 


301 


sword, and lay about you/’ He took them very 
thankfully, and no sooner had he the arms in his 
hands but, as if they had put new vigor into him, he 
flew upon his murderers like a fury, and had cut two 
of them in pieces in an instant; for the truth is, as 
the whole was a surprise to them, so the poor crea- 
tures were so much frighted with the noise of our 
pieces that they fell down for mere amazement and 
fear, and had no more power to attempt their own 
escape than their flesh had to resist our shot; and 
that was the case of those five that Friday shot at in 
the boat ; for as three of them fell with the hurt they 
received, so the other two fell with the fright. 

I kept my piece in my hand still without firing, 
being willing to keep my charge ready, because I had 
given the Spaniard my pistol and sword. So I called 
to Friday, and bade him run up to the tree from 
whence we first fired, and fetch the arms which lay 
there that had been discharged, which he did with 
great swiftness ; and then giving him my musket, I sat 
down myself to load all the rest again, and bade them 
come to me when they wanted. While I was loading 
these pieces, there happened a fierce engagement be- 
tween the Spaniard and one of the savages, who made 
at him with one of their great wooden swords, the 
same weapon that was to have killed him before if 
I ha(i not prevented it. The Spaniard, who was as 
bold and as brave as could be imagined, though weak, 
had fought this Indian a good while, and had cut him 
two great wounds on his head; but the savage being 
a stout, lusty fellow, closing in with him, ^ had thrown 
him down, being faint, and was wringing my sword 
out of his hand, when the Spaniard, though under- 
most, wisely quitting the sword, drew the pistol from 


302 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


liis girdle, shot the savage through the body, and 
killed him upon the spot, before I, who was running 
to help him, could come near him. 

Friday, being now left to his liberty, pursued the 
flying wretches with no weapon in his hand but his 
hatchet; and with that he despatched those three 
who, as I said before, were wounded at first, and 
fallen, and all the rest he could come up with; and 
the Spaniard coming to me for a gun, I gave him 
one of the fowling-pieces, with which he pursued two 
of the savages, and wounded them both; but as he 
was not able to run, they both got from him into the 
wood, where Friday pursued them, and killed one of 
them; but the other was too nimble for him, and 
though he was wounded, yet had plunged himself into 
the sea, and swam with all his might off to those two 
who were left in the canoe ; which three in the canoe, 
with one wounded, who we know not whether he died 
or no, were all that escaped our hands of one and 
twenty. The account of the rest is as follows : — 

3 killed at our first shot from the tree. 

2 killed at the next shot. 

2 killed by Friday in the boat. 

2 killed by ditto, of those at first wounded. 

1 killed by ditto in the wood. 

3 killed by the Spaniard. 

4 killed, being found dropped here and there 

of their wounds, or killed by Friday in his 
chase of them. 

4 escaped in the boat, whereof one wounded, if 
not dead. 

21 in all. 

Those that were in the canoe worked hard to get 


THE FIGHT WITH CANNIBALS. 


303 


out of gun-shot; and though Friday made two or 
three shots at them, I did not find that he hit any of 
them. Friday would fain have had me take one of 
their canoes, and pursued them; and, indeed, I was 
very anxious about their escape, lest carrying the 
news home to their people they should come back 
perhaps with two or three hundred of their canoes, 
and devour us by mere multitude. So I consented to 
pursue them by sea, and running to one of their 
canoes I jumped in, and bade Friday follow me. 
But when I was in the canoe, I was surprised to find 
another poor creature lie there alive, bound hand and 
foot, as the Spaniard was, for the slaughter, and al- 
most dead with fear, not knowing what the matter 
was; for he had not been able to look up over the 
side of the boat, he was tied so hard, neck and heels, 
and had been tied so long that he had really but 
little life in him. 

I immediately cut the twisted flags or rushes which 
they had bound him with, and would have helped him 
up; but he could not stand or speak, but groaned 
most piteously, believing, it seems, still that he was 
only unbound in order to be killed. 

.When Friday came to him, I bade him speak to 
him, and tell him of his deliverance ; and pulling out 
my bottle, made him give the poor wretch a dram; 
which, with the news of his being delivered, revived 
him, and he sat up in the boat. But when Friday 
came to hear him speak, and look in his face, it 
would have moved any one to tears to have seen how 
Friday kissed him, embraced him, hugged him, cried, 
laughed, hallooed, jumped about, danced, sung; then 
cried again, wrung his hands, beat his own face and 
head, and then sung and jumped about again, like a 


304 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


distracted creature. It was a good while before I 
could make him speak to me, or tell me what was 
the matter; but when he came a little to himself, he 
told me that it was his father. 

It is not easy for me to express how it moved me 
to see what ecstasy and filial affection had worked in 
this poor savage at the sight of his father, and of his 
being delivered from death; nor, indeed, can I de- 
scribe half the extravagancies of his affection after 
this ; for he went into the boat, and out of the boat, 
a great many times. When he went in to him, he 
would sit down by him, open his breast, and hold his 
father’s head close to his bosom, half an hour to- 
gether, to nourish it ; then he took his arms and an- 
kles, which were numbed and stiff with the binding, 
and chafed and rubbed them with his hands; and I, 
perceiving what the case was, gave him some rum out 
of my bottle to rub them with, which did them a 
great deal of good. 

This action put an end to our pursuit of the canoe 
with the other savages, who were now gotten almost 
out of sight; and it was happy for us that we did 
not, for it blew so hard within two hours after, and 
before they could be gotten a quarter of their way, 
and continued blowing so hard all night, and that 
from the northwest, which was against them, that I 
could not suppose their boat could live, or that they 
ever reached to their own coast. 

But to return to Friday. He was so busy about 
his father that I could not find in my heart to take 
him off for some time ; but after I thought he could 
leave him a little, I called him to me, and he came 
jumping and laughing, and pleased to the highest 
extreme. Then I asked him if he had given his 


THE FIGHT WITH CANNIBALS. 


305 


father any bread. He shook his head, and said, 
“None; ugly dog eat all up self.” So I gave him 
a cake of bread out of a little pouch I carried on pur- 
pose. I also gave him a dram for himself, but he 
would not taste it, but carried it to his father. I had 
in my pocket also two or three bunches of my raisins, 
so I gave him a handful of them for his father. He 
had no sooner given his father these raisins, but I 
saw him come out of the boat and run away, as if he 
had been bewitched, he ran at such a rate; for he 
was the swiftest fellow of his foot that ever I saw. I 
say, he run at such a rate that he was out of sight, 
as it were, in an instant; and though I called, and 
hallooed too, after him, it was all one, away he went; 
and in a quarter of an hour I saw him come back 
again, though not so fast as he went; and as he came 
nearer I found his pace was slacker, because he had 
something in his hand. 

When he came up to me, I found he had been 
quite home for an earthen jug, or pot, to bring his 
father some fresh water, and that he had got two 
more cakes or loaves of bread. The bread he gave 
me, but the water he carried to his father. How- 
ever, as I was very thirsty too, I took a little sup of 
it. This water revived his father more than all the 
rum or spirits I had given him, for he was just faint- 
ing with thirst. 

When his father had drank, I called to him to 
know if there was any water left. He said, “Yes; ” 
and I bade him give it to the poor Spaniard, who 
was in as much want of it as his father; and I sent 
one of the cakes, that Friday brought, to the Span- 
iard too, who was indeed very weak, and was repos- 
ing himself upon a green place under the shade of 


306 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


a tree ; and whose limbs were also very stiff, and very 
much swelled with the rude bandage he had been tied 
with. When I saw that upon Friday’s coming to 
him with the water he sat up and drank, and took 
the bread, and began to eat, I went to him, and gave 
him a handful of raisins. He looked up in my face 
with all the tokens of gratitude and thankfulness that 
could appear in any countenance ; but was so weak, 
notwithstanding he had so exerted himself in the 
fight, that he could not stand up upon his feet. He 
tried to do it two or three times, but was really not 
able, his ankles were so swelled and so painful to 
him; so I bade him sit still, and caused Friday to 
rub his ankles, and bathe them with rum, as he had 
done his father’s. 

I observed the poor affectionate creature, every two 
minutes, or perhaps less, all the while he was here, 
turned his head about to see if his father was in the 
same place and posture as he left him sitting ; and at 
last he found he was not to be seen; at which he 
started up, and, without speaking a word, flew with 
that swiftness to him that one could scarce perceive 
his feet to touch the ground as he went. But when 
he came, he only found he had laid himself down to 
ease his limbs; so Friday came back to me presently, 
and I then spoke to the Spaniard to let Friday help 
him up, if he could, and lead him to the boat, and 
then he should carry him to our dwelling, where I 
would take care of him. But Friday, a lusty strong 
fellow, took the Spaniard quite up upon his back, 
and carried him away to the boat, and set him down 
softly upon the side or gunnel of the canoe, with his 
feet in the inside of it, and then lifted him quite in, 
and set him close to his father; and presently, step- 


THE FIGHT WITH CANNIBALS. 


307 


ping out again, launched the boat off, and paddled it 
along the shore faster than I could walk, though the 
wind blew pretty hard too. So he brought them 
both safe into our creek, and leaving them in the 
boat, runs away to fetch the other canoe. As he 
passed me, I spoke to him, and asked him whither 
he went. He told me, “Go fetch more boat.” So 
away he went like the wind, for sure never man or 
horse ran like him; and he had the other canoe in 
the creek almost as soon as I got to it by land ; so 
he wafted me. over, and then went to help our new 
guests out of the boat, which he did ; but they were 
neither of them able to walk, so that poor Friday 
knew not what to do. 

To remedy this I went to work in my thought, and 
calling to Friday to bid them sit down on the bank 
while he came to me, I soon made a kind of hand- 
barrow to lay them on, and Friday and I carried 
them up both together upon it between us. But when 
we got them to the outside of our wall, or fortifica- 
tion, we were at a worse loss than before, for it was 
impossible to get them over, and I was resolved not 
to break it down. So I set to work again ; and Fri- 
day and I, in about two hours’ time, made a very 
handsome tent, covered with old sails, and above that 
with boughs of trees, being in the space without our 
outward fence, and between that and the grove of 
young wood which I had planted ; and here we made 
them two beds of such things as I had, viz., of good 
rice-straw, with blankets laid upon it to lie on, and 
another to cover them, on each bed. 


CHAPTER XXVII. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE AND HIS SUBJECTS. 

My island was now peopled, and I thought myself 
very rich in subjects; and it was a merry reflection, 
which I frequently made, how like a king I looked. 
First of all, the whole country was my own mere 
property, so that I had an undoubted right of domin- 
ion. Secondly, my people were perfectly subjected. 
I was absolute lord and lawgiver; they all owed their 
lives to me, and were ready to lay down their lives, 
if there had been occasion of it, for me. It was 
remarkable, too, we had but three subjects, and they 
were of three different religions. My man Friday 
was a Protestant, his father was a Pagan and a can- 
nibal, and the Spaniard was a Papist. However, I 
allowed liberty of conscience throughout my domin- 
ions. But this is by the way. 

As soon as I had secured my two weak rescued 
prisoners, and given them shelter and a place to rest 
them upon, I began to think of making some provi- 
sion for them; and the first thing I did, I ordered 
Friday to take a yearling goat, betwixt a kid and a 
goat, out of my particular fiock, to be killed; when 
I cut off the hinder-quarter, and chopping it into 
small pieces, I set Friday to work to boiling and 
stewing, and made them a very good dish, I assure 
you, of flesh and broth, having put some barley and 
rice also into the broth ; and as I cooked it without 


ROBINSON CRUSOE AND HIS SUBJECTS. 309 


doors, for I made no fire within my inner wall, so I 
carried it all into the new tent, and having set a table 
there for them, I sat down and ate my own dinner 
also with them, and as well as I could cheered them, 
and encouraged them; Friday being my interpreter, 
especially to his father, and, indeed, to the Spaniard 
too ; for the Spaniard spoke the language of the sav- 
ages pretty well. 

After we had dined, or rather supped, I ordered 
Friday to take one of the canoes and go and fetch 
our muskets and other firearms, which, for want of 
time, we had left upon the place of battle; and the 
next day I ordered him to go and bury the dead 
bodies of the savages, which lay open to the sun, and 
would presently be offensive ; and I also ordered him 
to bury the horrid remains of their barbarous feast, 
which I knew were pretty much, and which I could 
not think of doing myself ; nay, I could not bear to 
see them, if I went that way. All which he punc- 
tually performed, and defaced ^ the very appearance of 
the savages being there ; so that when I went again 
I could scarce know where it was, otherwise than by 
the corner of the wood pointing to the place. 

I then began to enter into a little conversation with 
my two new subjects; and first, I set Friday to in- 
quire of his father what he thought o? the escape of 
the savages in that canoe, and whether we might 
expect a return of them, with a power too great for 
us to resist. His first opinion was, that the savages 
in the boat never could live out the storm which blew 
that night they went off, but must, of necessity, be 
drowned, or driven south to those other shores, where 
they were as sure to be devoured as they were to be 
^ The form we should now use would be effaced. 


310 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


drowned if they were cast away. But as to what 
they would do if they came safe on shore, he said he 
knew not ; but it was his opinion that they were so 
dreadfully frighted with the manner of their being 
attacked, the noise, and the fire, that he believed they 
would tell their people they were all killed by thunder 
and lightning, not by the hand of man ; and that the 
two which appeared, viz., Friday and me, were two 
heavenly spirits, or furies, come down to destroy 
them, and not men with weapons. This, he said, he 
knew, because he heard them all cry out so in their 
language to one another; for it was impossible to 
them to conceive that a man could dart fire, and 
speak thunder, and kill at a distance without lifting 
up the hand, as was done now. And this old savage 
was in the right; for, as I understood since by other 
hands, the savages never attempted to go over to the 
island afterwards. They were so terrified with the 
accounts given by those four men (for, it seems, they 
did escape the sea), that they believed whoever went 
to that enchanted island would be destroyed with fire 
from the gods. This, however, I knew not, and there- 
fore was under continual apprehensions for a good 
while, and kept always upon my guard, me and all 
my army; for as we were now four of us, I would 
have ventured upon a hundred of them, fairly in the 
open field, at any time. 

In a little time, however, no more canoes appear- 
ing, the fear of their coming wore off, and I began to 
take my former thoughts of a vo3^age to the main into 
consideration; being likewise assured, by Friday’s 
father, that I might depend upon good usage from 
their nation, on his account, if I would go. 

But my thoughts were a little suspended when I 


ROBINSON CRUSOE AND HIS SUBJECTS. 811 

had a serious discourse with the Spaniard, and when 
I understood that there were sixteen more of his 
countrymen and Portuguese, who, having been cast 
away, and made their escape to that side, lived there 
at peace, indeed, with the savages, but were very sore 
put to it for necessaries, and indeed for life. I asked 
him all the particulars of their voyage, and found 
they were a Spanish ship bound from the Eio de la 
Plata to the Havana, being directed to leave their 
loading there, which was chiefly hides and silver, and 
to bring back what European goods they could meet 
with there ; that they had five Portuguese seamen on 
board, whom they took out of another wreck; that 
five of their own men were drowned when the first 
ship was lost, and that these escaped, through infinite 
dangers and hazards, and arrived, almost starved, on 
the cannibal coast, where they expected to have been 
devoured every moment. 

He told me they had some arms with them, but 
they were perfectly useless, for that they had neither 
powder or ball, the washing of the sea having spoiled 
all their powder but a little, which they used, at their 
first landing, to provide themselves some food. 

I asked him what he thought would become of them 
there, and if they had formed no design of making 
any escape. He said they had many consultations 
about it; but that having neither vessel, or tools to 
build one, or provisions of any kind, their councils 
always ended in tears and despair. 

I asked him how he thought they would receive a 
proposal from me, which might tend towards, an es- 
cape; and whether, if they were all here, it might 
not be done. I told him with freedom, I feared 
mostly their treachery and ill usage of me if I put 


312 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


my life in their hands; for that gratitude was no 
inherent virtue in the nature of man, nor did men 
always square their dealings by the obligations they 
had received, so much as they did by the advantages 
they expected. I told him it would be very hard 
that I should be the instrument of their deliverance, 
and that they should afterwards make me their pris- 
oner in New Spain, where an Englishman was certain 
to be made a sacrifice, what necessity or what acci- 
dent soever brought him thither; and that I had 
rather be delivered up to the savages, and be devoured 
alive, than fall into the merciless claws of the priests, 
and be carried into the Inquisition. I added, that 
otherwise I was persuaded, if they were all here, we 
might, with so many hands, build a bark large enough 
to carry us all away, either to the Brazils, southward, 
or to the islands or Spanish coast, northward; but 
that if, in requital, they should, when I had put 
weapons into their hands, carry me by force among 
their own people, I might be ill used for my kindness 
to them, and make my case worse than it was before. 

He answered, with a great deal of candor and in- 
genuity, that their condition was so miserable, and 
they were so sensible of it, that he believed they 
would abhor the thought of using any man unkindly 
that should contribute to their deliverance; and that, 
if I pleased, he would go to them with the old man, 
and discourse with them about it, and return again, 
and bring me their answer; that he would make con- 
ditions with them upon their solemn oath that they 
should be absolutely under my leading, as their com- 
mander and captain; and that they should swear 
upon the holy sacraments and the gospel to be true 
to me, and to go to such Christian country as that 


ROBINSON CRUSOE AND HIS SUBJECTS. 313 


I should agree to, and no other, and to be directed 
wholly and absolutely by my orders till they were 
landed safely in such country as I intended; and that 
he would bring a contract from them, under their 
hands, for that purpose. 

Then he told me he would first swear to me him- 
self, that he would never stir from me as long as he 
lived till I gave him orders ; and that he would take 
my side to the last drop of his blood, if there should 
happen the least breach of faith among his country- 
men. 

He told me they were all of them very civil, honest 
men, and they were under the greatest distress imagin- 
able, having neither weapons or clothes, or any food, 
but at the mercy and discretion of the savages ; out 
of all hopes of ever returning to their own country; 
and that he was sure, if I would undertake their 
relief, they would live and die by me. 

Upon these assurances, I resolved to venture to 
relieve them, if possible, and to send the old savage 
and this Spaniard over to them to treat. But when 
we had gotten all things in a readiness to go, the 
Spaniard himself started an objection, which had so 
much prudence in it on one hand, and so much sin- 
cerity on the other hand, that I could not but be very 
well satisfied in it, and by his advice put off the de- 
liverance of his comrades for at least half a year. 
The case was thus. 

He had been with us now about a month, during 
which time I had let him see in what manner I had 
provided, with the assistance of Providence, for my 
support; and he saw evidently what stock of corn and 
rice I had laid up ; which, as it was more than suffi- 
cient for myself, so it was not sufficient, at least with- 


814 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


out good husbandry, for my family, now it was in- 
creased to number four; but much less would it be 
sufficient if his countrymen, who were, as he said, 
fourteen, still alive, should come over;. and least of 
all would it be sufficient to victual our vessel, if we 
should build one, for a voyage to any of the Christian 
colonies of America. So he told me he thought it 
would be more advisable to let him and the two others 
dig and cultivate some more land, as much as I could 
spare seed to sow; and that we should wait another 
harvest, that we might have a supply of corn for his 
countrymen when they should come ; for want might 
be a temptation to them to disagree, or not to think 
themselves delivered, otherwise than out of one diffi- 
culty into another. ‘‘You know,” says he, “the 
children of Israel, though they rejoiced at first for 
their being delivered out of Egypt, yet rebelled even 
against God Himself, that delivered them, when they 
came to want bread in the wilderness.” 

His caution was so seasonable, and his advice so 
good, that I could not but be very well pleased with 
his proposal, as well as I was satisfied with his fidel- 
ity. So we fell to digging all four of us, as well as 
the wooden tools we were furnished with permitted; 
and in about a month’s time, by the end of which it 
was seed-time, we had gotten as much land cured and 
trimmed up as we sowed twenty -two bushels of barley 
on, and sixteen jars of rice; which was, in short, all 
the seed we had to spare; nor, indeed, did we leave 
ourselves barley sufficient for our own food for the 
six months that we had to expect our crop; that is to 
say, reckoning from the time we set our seed aside 
for sowing; for it is not to be supposed it is six 
months in the ground in that country. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE AND HIS SUBJECTS. 315 


Having now society enough, and our number being 
sufficient to put us out of fear of the savages, if they 
had come, unless their number had been very great, 
we went freely all over the island, wherever we found 
occasion; and as here we had our escape or deliver- 
ance upon our thoughts, it was impossible, at least 
for me, to have the means of it out of mine. To this 
purpose I marked out several trees which I thought 
fit for our work, and I set Friday and his father to 
cutting them down ; and then I caused the Spaniard, 
to whom I imparted my thought on that affair, to 
oversee and direct their work. I showed them with 
what indefatigable pains I had hewed a large tree 
into single planks, and I caused them to do the like, 
till they had made about a dozen large planks of good 
oak, near two feet broad, thirty -five feet long, and 
from two inches to four inches thick. What prodi- 
gious labor it took up, any one may imagine. 

At the same time, I contrived to increase my little 
flock of tame goats as much as I could; and to this 
purpose I made Friday and the Spaniard go out one 
day, and myself with Friday the next day, for we 
took our turns, and by this means we got above 
twenty young kids to breed up with the rest; for 
whenever we shot the dam, we saved the kids, and 
added them to our flock. But above all, the season 
for curing the grapes coming on, I caused such a 
prodigious quantity to be hung up in the sun, that I 
believe, had we been at Alicant, where the raisins of 
the sun are cured, we could have filled sixty or eighty 
barrels ; and these, with our bread, was a great part 
of our food, and very good living too, I assure you ; 
for it is an exceeding nourishing food. 

It was now harvest, and our crop in good order. 


816 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


It was not the most plentiful increase I had seen in 
the island, but, however, it was enough to answer 
our end ; for from our twenty-two bushels of barley 
we brought in and thrashed out above two hundred 
and twenty bushels, and the like in proportion of the 
rice ; which was store enough for our food to the next 
harvest, though all the sixteen Spaniards had been on 
shore with me ; or if we had been ready for a voyage, 
it would very plentifully have victualled our ship to 
have carried us to any part of the world, that is to 
say, of America. 

When we had thus housed and secured our maga- 
zine of corn, we fell to work to make more wicker 
work, viz., great baskets, in which we kept it; and 
the Spaniard was very handy and dexterous at this 
part, and often blamed me that I did not make some 
things for defence of this kind of work; but I saw no 
need of it. 

And now having a full supply of food for all the 
guests I expected, I gave the Spaniard leave to go 
over to the main, to see what he could do with those 
he had left behind him there. I gave him a strict 
charge in writing not to bring any man with him who 
would not first swear, in the presence of himself and 
of the old savage, that he would no way injure, fight 
with, or attack the person he should find in the island, 
who was so kind to send for them in order to their’ 
deliverance ; but that they would stand by and defend 
him against all such attempts, and wherever they 
went would be entirely under and subjected to his 
commands; and that this should be put in writing, 
and signed with their hands. How we were to have 
this done, when I knew they had neither pen or ink, 
that indeed was a question which we never asked. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE AND HIS SUBJECTS. 317 


Under these instructions, the Spaniard and the old 
savage, the father of Friday, went away in one of the 
canoes which they might be said to come in, or rather 
were brought in, when they came as prisoners to be 
devoured by the savages. 

I gave each of them a musket, with a firelock on 
it, and about eight charges of powder and ball, charg- 
ing them to be very good husbands of both, and not 
to use either of them but upon urgent occasion. 

This was a cheerful work, being the first measures 
used by me, in view of my deliverance, for now 
twenty-seven years and some days. I gave them 
provisions of bread and of dried grapes sufficient for 
themselves for many days, and sufficient for all their 
countrymen for about eight days’ time ; and wishing 
them a good voyage, I see them go, agreeing with 
them about a signal they should hang out at their re- 
turn, by which I should know them again, when they 
came back, at a distance, before they came on shore. 

They went away with a fair gale on the day that 
the moon was at full, by my account in the month of 
October; but as for an exact reckoning of days, after 
I had once lost it, I could never recover it again ; nor 
had I kept even the number of years so punctually 
as to be sure that I was right, though as it proved, 
when I afterwards examined my account, I found I 
had kept a true reckoning of years. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 


THE COMING OF ENGLISHMEN. 

It was no less than eight days I had waited for 
them, when a strange and unforeseen accident inter- 
vened, of which the like has not perhaps been heard 
of in history. I was fast asleep in my hutch one 
morning, when my man Friday came running in to 
me, and called aloud, ‘‘Master, master, they are 
come, they are come ! ” 

I jumped up, and, regardless of danger, I went out 
as soon as I could get my clothes on, through my 
little grove, which, by the way, was by this time 
grown to be a very thick wood ; I say, regardless of 
danger, I went without my arms, which was not my 
custom to do ; but I was surprised when, turning my 
eyes to the sea, I presently saw a boat at about a 
league and half’s distance standing in for the shore, 
with a shoulder-of-mutton sail, as they call it, and 
the wind blowing pretty fair to bring them in; also 
I observed presently that they did not come from 
that side which the shore lay on, but from the south- 
ernmost end of the island. Upon this I called Fri- 
day in, and bid him lie close, for these were not the 
people we looked for, and that we might not know 
yet whether they were friends or enemies. 

In the next place, I went in to fetch my prospec- 
tive glass, to see what I could make of them; and 
having taken the ladder out, I climbed up to the top 


THE COMING OF ENGLISHMEN. 


319 


of the hill, as I used to do when I was apprehensive 
of anything, and to take my view the plainer, without 
being discovered. 

I had scarce set my foot on the hill, when my eye 
plainly discovered a ship lying at an anchor at about 
two leagues and an half’s distance from me, south- 
southeast, but not above a league and an half ^ from 
the shore. By my observation, it appeared plainly 
to be an English ship, and the boat appeared to be 
an English long-boat. I cannot express the confusion 
I was in; though the joy of seeing a ship, and one 
who I had reason to believe was manned by my own 
countrymen, and consequently friends, was such as I 
cannot describe. But yet I had some secret doubts 
hung about me, I cannot tell from whence they came, 
bidding me keep upon my guard. In the first place, 
it occurred to me to consider what business an English 
ship could have in that part of the world, since it was 
not the way to or from any part of the world where 
the English had any traffic; and I knew there had 
been no storms to drive them in there, as in distress; 
and that if they were English really, it was most 
probable that they were here upon no good design ; 
and that I had better continue as I was than fall into 
the hands of thieves and murderers. 

Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of 
danger which sometimes are given him when he may 
think there is no possibility of its being real. That 
such hints and notices are given us, I believe few 
that have made any observations of things can deny; 
that they are certain discoveries of an invisible world, 
and a converse of spirits, we cannot doubt; and if 

^ To use the form now an half would be to slip into the cockney 
suppression of the h sound. 


320 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


the tendency of them seems to be to warn us of dan- 
ger, why should we not suppose they are from some 
friendly agent, — whether supreme, or inferior and 
subordinate, is not the question, — and that they are 
given for our good? The present question abundantly 
confirms me in the justice of this reasoning; for had 
I not been made cautious by this secret admonition, 
come it from whence it will, I had been undone in- 
evitably, and in a far worse condition than before, as 
you will see presently. 

I had not kept myself long in this posture, but I 
saw the boat draw near the shore, as if they looked 
for a creek to thrust in at, for the convenience of 
landing. However, as they did not come quite far 
enough, they did not see the little inlet where I for- 
merly landed my rafts ; but run their boat on shore 
upon the beach, at about half a mile from me, which 
was very happy for me; for otherwise they would 
have landed just, as I may say, at my door, and 
would soon have beaten me out of my castle, and 
perhaps have plundered me of all I had. 

When they were on shore, I was fully satisfied 
that they were Englishmen, at least most of them; 
one or two I thought were Dutch, but it did not 
prove so. There were in all eleven men, whereof 
three of them I found were unarmed, and, as I 
thought, bound; and when the first four or five of 
them were jumped on shore, they took those three 
out of the boat, as prisoners. One of the three I 
could perceive using the most passionate gestures of 
entreaty, affliction, and despair, even to a kind of 
extravagance; the other two, I could perceive, lifted 
up their hands sometimes, and appeared concerned 
indeed, but not to such a degree as the first. 


THE COMING OF ENGLISHMEN. 


321 


I was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew 
not what the meaning of it should be. Friday called 
out to me in English as well as he could, ‘‘ O master ! 
you see English mans eat prisoner as well as savage 
mans.” ‘‘Why,” says I, “Friday, do you think they 
are a-going to eat them then? ” “Yes,” says Friday, 
“they will eat them.” “No, no,” says I, “Friday, 
I am afraid they will murder them indeed, but you 
may be sure they will not eat them.” 

All this while I had no thought of what the matter 
really was, but stood trembling with the horror of the 
sight, expecting every moment when the three pris- 
oners should be killed; nay, once I saw one of the 
villains lift up his arm with a great cutlass, as the 
seamen call it, or sword, to strike one of the poor 
men ; and I expected to see him fall every moment, 
at which all the blood in my body seemed to run chill 
in my veins. 

I wished heartily now for my Spaniard, and the 
savage that was gone with him; or that I had any 
way to have come undiscovered within shot of them, 
that I might have rescued the three men, for I saw 
no firearms they had among them ; but it fell out to 
my mind another way. 

After I had observed the outrageous usage of the 
three men by the insolent seamen, I observed the 
fellows run scattering about the land, as if they 
wanted to see the country. I observed that the three 
other men had liberty to go also where they pleased; 
but they sat down all three upon the ground, very 
pensive, and looked like men in despair. 

This put me in mind of the first time when I came 
on shore, and began to look about me; how I gave 
myself over for lost ; how wildly I looked round me ; 


322 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


what dreadful apprehensions I had ; and how I lodged 
in the tree all night, for fear of being devoured by 
wild beasts. 

As I knew nothing that night of the supply I was 
to receive by the providential driving of the ship 
nearer the land by the storms and tide, by which I 
have since been so long nourished and supported; so 
these three poor desolate men knew nothing how cer- 
tain of deliverance and supply they were, how near 
it was to them, and how effectually and really they 
were in a condition of safety, at the same time that 
they thought themselves lost, and their case desper- 
ate. 

So little do we see before us in the world, and so 
much reason have we to depend cheerfully upon the 
great Maker of the world, that He does not leave 
His creatures so absolutely destitute, but that, in the 
worst circumstances, they have always something to 
be thankful for, and sometimes are nearer their deliv- 
erance than they imagine ; nay, are even brought to 
their deliverance by the means by which they seem 
to be brought to their destruction. 

It was just at the top of high-water when these 
people came on shore; and while partly they stood 
parleying with the prisoners they brought, and partly 
while they rambled about to see what kind of a place 
they were in, they had carelessly stayed till the tide 
was spent, and the water was ebbed considerably 
away, leaving their boat aground. 

They had left two men in the boat, who, as I found 
afterwards, having drank a little too much brandy, 
fell asleep. However, one of them waking sooner 
than the other, and finding the boat too fast aground 
for him to stir it, hallooed for the rest, who were 


THE COMING OF ENGLISHMEN. 323 

straggling about, upon which they all soon came to 
the boat ; but it was past all their strength to launch 
her, the boat being very heavy, and the shore on that 
side being a soft oozy sand, almost like a quicksand. 

In this condition, like true seamen, who are per- 
haps the least of all mankind given to forethought, 
they gave it over, and away they strolled about the 
country again ; and I heard one of them say aloud to 
another, calling them off from the boat, ‘‘Why, let 
her alone. Jack, can’t ye? she will float next tide; ” 
by which I was fully confirmed in the main inquiry 
of what countrymen they were. 

All this while I kept myself very close, not once 
daring to stir out of my castle, any farther than to 
my place of observation near the top of the hill ; and 
very glad I was to think how well it was fortified. 
I knew it was no less than ten hours before the boat 
could be on float again, and by that time it would be 
dark, and I might be at more liberty to see their 
motions, and to hear their discourse, if they had any. 

In the meantime, I fitted myself up for a battle, as 
before, though with more caution, knowing I had to 
do with another kind of enemy than I had at first. 
I ordered Friday also, whom I had made an excellent 
marksman with his gun, to load himself with arms. 
I took myself two fowling-pieces, and I gave him 
three muskets. My figure, indeed, was very fierce. 
I had my formidable goat-skin coat on, with the great 
cap I have mentioned, a naked sword by my side, tv/o 
pistols in my belt, and a gun upon each shoulder. 

It was my design, as I said above, not to have 
made any attempt till it was dark; but about two 
o’clock, being the heat of the day, I found that, in 
short, they were all gone straggling into the woods. 


324 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


and, as I thought, were laid down to sleep. The 
three poor distressed men, too anxious for their eon- 
dition to get any sleep, were, however, set down 
under the shelter of a great tree, at about a quarter 
of a mile from me, and, as I thought, out of sight of 
any of the rest. 

Upon this I resolved to discover myself to them, 
and learn something of their condition. Immediately 
I marched in the figure as above, my man Friday at 
a good distance behind me, as formidable for his 
arms as I, but not making quite so staring a spectre - 
like figure as I did. 

I came as near them undiscovered as I could, and 
then, before any of them saw me, I called aloud to 
them in Spanish, “What are ye, gentlemen? ” 

They started up at the noise, but were ten times 
more confounded when they saw me, and the uncouth 
figure that I made. They made no answer at all, 
but I thought I perceived them just going to fly from 
me, when I spoke to them in English. “Gentlemen,” 
said I, “do not be surprised at me; perhaps you may 
have a friend near you, when you did not expect it.” 
“He must be sent directly from heaven then,” said 
one of them very gravely to me, and pulling off his 
hat at the same time to me, “for our condition is 
past the help of man.” “All help is from heaven, 
sir,” said I. “But can you put a stranger in the 
way how to help you, for you seem to me to be in 
some great distress? I saw you when you landed; 
and when you seemed to make applications to the 
brutes that came with you, I saw one of them lift up 
his sword to kill you.” 

The poor man, with tears running down his face, 
and trembling, looking like one astonished, returned. 


THE COMING OF ENGLISHMEN. 


325 


“Am I talking to God, or man? Is it a real man, 
or an angel?” “Be in no fear about that, sir,” said 
I. “If God had sent an angel to relieve you, he 
would have come better clothed, and armed after 
another manner than you see me in. Pray lay aside 
your fears; I a^m a man, an Englishman, and dis- 
posed to assist you, you see. I have one servant 
only ; we have arms and ammunition ; tell us freely, 
can we serve you? What is your case? ” 

“Our case,” said he, “sir, is too long to tell you 
while our murderers are so near; but in short, sir, I 
was commander of that ship ; my men have mutinied 
against me, they have been hardly prevailed on not 
to murder me; and at last have set me on shore in 
this desolate place, with these two men with me, one 
my mate, the other a passenger, where we expected 
to perish, believing the place to be uninhabited, and 
know not yet what to think of it.” 

“Where are those brutes, your enemies?” said I. 
“Do you know where they are gone? ” “There they 
lie, sir,” said he, pointing to a thicket of trees. 
“My heart trembles for fear they have seen us, and 
heard you speak. If they have, they will certainly 
murder us all.” 

“Have they any firearms? ” said I. He answered, 
they had only two pieces, and one which they left in 
the boat. “Well then,” said I, “leave the rest to 
me, I see they are all asleep ; it is an easy thing to 
kill them all; but shall we rather take them prison- 
ers? ” He told me there were two desperate villains 
among them that it was scarce safe to show any mercy 
to ; but if they were secured, he believed all the rest 
would return to their duty. I asked him which they 
were. He told me he could not at that distance 


326 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


describe them, but he would obey my orders in any- 
thing I would direct. “Well,” says I, “let us re- 
treat out of their view or hearing, lest they awake, 
and we will resolve further.” So they willingly went 
back with me, till the woods covered us from them. 

“Look you, sir,” said I, “if I venture upon your 
deliverance, are you willing to make two conditions 
with me?” He anticipated my proposals, by' telling 
me that both he and the ship, if recovered, should be 
wholly directed and commanded by me in everything.; 
and if the ship was not recovered, he would live and 
die with me in what part of the world soever I would 
send him ; and the two other men said the same. 

“Well,” says I, “my conditions are but two. 1. 
That while you stay on this island with me, you will 
not pretend to any authority here ; and if I put arms 
into your hands, you will, upon all occasions, give 
them up to me, and do no prejudice to me or mine 
upon this island; and in the meantime, be governed 
by my orders. 2. That if the ship is, or may be, 
recovered, you will carry me and my man to Eng- 
land, passage free.” 

He gave me all the assurances that the invention 
and faith of man could devise that he would comply 
with these most reasonable demands; and, besides, 
would owe his life to me, and acknowledge it upon 
all occasions, as long as he lived. 

“Well then,” said I, “here are three muskets for 
you, with powder and ball; tell me next what you 
think is proper to be done.” He showed all the tes- 
timony of his gratitude that he was able, but offered 
to be wholly guided by me. I told him I thought it 
was hard venturing anything; but the best method 
I could think of was to fire upon them at once, as 


THE COMING OF ENGLISHMEN. 


327 


they lay; and if any was not killed at the first volley, 
and offered to submit, we might save them, and so 
put it wholly upon God’s providence to direct the 
shof. * 

He said very modestly that he was loath to kill 
them, if he could help it; but that those two were 
incorrigible villains, and had been the authors of all 
the mutiny in the ship, and if they escaped, we 
should be undone still ; for they would go on board 
and bring the whole ship’s company, and destroy us 
all. ‘‘Well then,” says I, “necessity legitimates my 
advice, for it is the only way to save our lives.” 
However, seeing him still cautious of shedding blood, 
I told him they should go themselves, and manage as 
they found convenient. 

In the middle of this discourse we heard some of 
them awake, and soon after we saw two of them on 
their feet. I asked him if either of them were of the 
men who he had said were the heads of the mutiny. 
He said, “No.” “Well then,” said I, “you may let 
them escape; and Providence seems to have wakened 
them on purpose to save themselves. Now,” says I, 
“if the rest escape you, it is your fault.” 

Animated with this, he took the musket I had 
given him in his hand, and a pistol in his belt, and 
his two comrades with him, with each man a piece in 
his hand. The two men who were with him going 
first made some noise, at which one of the seamen 
who was awake turned about, and seeing them com- 
^ ing cried out to the rest; but it was too late then, 
for the moment he cried out they fired ; I mean the 
two men, the captain wisely reserving his own piece. 
They had so well aimed their shot at the men they 
knew that one of them was killed on the spot, and 


328 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


the other very much wounded ; hut not being dead, 
he started up upon his feet, and called eagerly for 
help to the other. But the captain stepping to him, 
told him ’t was too late to cry for help, he should call 
upon God to forgive his villainy; and with that word 
knocked him down with the stock of his musket, so 
that he never spoke more. There were three more in 
the company, and one of them was also slightly 
wounded. By this time I was come ; and when they 
saw their danger, and that it was in vain to resist, 
they begged for mercy. The captain told them he 
would spare their lives if they would give him any 
assurance of their abhorrence of the treachery they 
had been guilty of, and would swear to be faithful to 
him in recovering the ship, and afterwards in carry- 
ing her back to Jamaica, from whence they came. 
They gave him all the protestations of their sincerity 
that could be desired, and he was willing to believe 
them, and spare their lives, which I was not against, 
only I obliged him to keep them bound hand and foot 
while they were upon the island. 

While this was doing, I sent Friday with the cap- 
tain’s mate to the boat, with orders to secure her, 
and bring away the oars and sail, which they did; 
and by and by three straggling men, that were (hap- 
pily for them) parted from the rest, came back upon 
hearing the guns fired; and seeing their captain, 
who before was their prisoner, now their conqueror, 
they submitted to be bound also, and so our victory 
was complete. 

It now remained that the captain and I should 
inquire into one another’s circumstances. I began 
first, and told him my whole history, which he heard 
with an attention even to amazement; and particu- 


THE COMING OF ENGLISHMEN. 329 

larly at the wonderful manner of my being furnished 
with provisions and ammunition; and, indeed, as my 
story is a whole collection of wonders, it affected him 
deeply. But when he reflected from thence upon 
himself, and how I seemed to have been preserved 
there on purpose to save his life, the tears ran down 
his face, and he could not speak a word more. 

After this communication was at an end, I carried 
him and his two men into my apartment, leading 
them in just where I came out, viz., at the top of the 
house, where I refreshed them with such provisions 
as I had, and showed them all the contrivances I had 
made during my long, long inhabiting that place. 

All I showed them, all I said to them, was per- 
fectly amazing; but above all, the captain admired 
my fortification, and how perfectly I had concealed 
my retreat with a grove of trees, which, having been 
now planted near twenty years, and the trees growing 
much faster than in England, was become a little 
wood, and so thick that it was unpassable in any 
part of it but at that one side where I had reserved 
my little winding passage into it. I told him this 
was my castle and my residence, but that I had a seat 
in the country, as most princes have, whither I could 
retreat upon occasion, and I would show him that, 
too, another time ; but at present our business was to 
consider how to recover the ship. He agreed with 
me as to that, but told me he was perfectly at a loss 
what measures to take, for that there were still six 
and twenty hands on board, who having entered into 
a cursed conspiracy, by which they had all forfeited 
their lives to the law, would be hardened in it now 
by desperation, and would carry it on, knowing that 
if they were reduced, they should be brought to the 


330 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


gallows as soon as they came to England, or to any of 
the English colonies ; and that therefore there would 
be no attacking them with so small a number as we 
were. 


CHAPTER XXIX. 


THE FIGHT WITH MUTINEERS. 

I MUSED for some time upon what he said, and 
found it was a very rational conclusion, and that 
therefore something was to be resolved on very 
speedily, as well to draw the men on board into some 
snare for their surprise, as to prevent their landing 
upon us, and destroying us. Upon this it presently 
occurred to me that in a little while the ship’s crew, 
wondering what was become of their comrades, and of 
the boat, would certainly come on shore in their other 
boat to see for them; and that then, perhaps, they 
might come armed, and be too strong for us. This 
he allowed was rational. 

Upon this, I told him the first thing we had to do 
was to stave the boat, which lay upon the beach, so 
that they might not carry her off ; and taking every- 
thing out of her, leave her so far useless as not to be 
fit to swim. Accordingly we went on board, took the 
arms which were left on board out of her, and what- 
ever else we found there, which was a bottle of brandy, 
and another of rum, a few biscuit-cakes, a horn of 
powder, and a great lump of sugar in a piece of can- 
vas — the sugar was five or six pounds ; all which 
was very welcome to me, especially the brandy and 
sugar, of which I had had none left for many years. 
When we had carried all these things on shore (the 
oars, mast, sail, and rudder of the boat were carried 


332 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


away before, as above), we knocked a great hole in 
her bottom, that if they had come strong enough to 
master us, yet they could not carry off the boat. In- 
deed, it was not much in my thoughts that we could 
be able to recover the ship ; but my view was, that if 
they went away without the boat, I did not much 
question to make her fit again to carry us away to the 
Leeward Islands, and call upon our friends the Span- 
iards in my way ; for I had them still in my thoughts. 

While we were thus preparing our designs, and had 
first, by main strength, heaved the boat up upon the 
beach so high that the tide would not fleet ^ her off at 
high-water mark; and besides, had broke a hole in 
her bottom too big to be quickly stopped, and were 
sat down musing what we should do, we heard the 
ship fire a gun, and saw her make a waft with her 
ancient ^ as a signal for the boat to come on board. 
But no boat stirred ; and they fired several times, 
making other signals for the boat. 

At last, when all their signals and firings proved 
fruitless, and they found the boat did not stir, we saw 
them, by the help of my glasses, hoist another boat 
out, and row towards the shore ; and we found, as 
they approached, that there was no less than ten men 
in her, and that they had firearms with them. 

As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, 
we had a full view of them as. they came, and a plain 
sight of the men, even of their faces ; because the tide 
having set them a little to the east of the other boat, 
they rowed up under shore, to come to the same place 
where the other had landed, and where the boat lay. 

^ To fleet here is to float. There is a nautical use of the word 
in the sense of to change the position of tackle. 

2 A corrupt form of emign. 


\ 


THE FIGHT WITH MUTINEERS. 


333 


By this means, I say, we had a full view of them, 
and the captain knew the persons and characters of all 
the men in the boat, of whom he said that there were 
three very honest fellows, who, he was sure, were led 
into this conspiracy by the rest, being overpowered 
and frighted ; but that as for the boatswain, who, it 
seems, was the chief officer among them, and all the 
rest, they were as outrageous as any of the ship’s 
crew, and were no doubt made desperate in their new 
enterprise ; and terribly apprehensive he was that 
they would be too powerful for us. 

I smiled at him, and told him that men in our cir- 
cumstances were past the operation of fear ; that seeing 
almost every condition that could be was better than 
that which we were supposed to be in, we ought to 
expect that the consequence, whether death or life, 
would be sure to be a deliverance. I asked him what 
he thought of the circumstances of my life, and 
whether a deliverance were not worth venturing for. 
“ And where, sir,” said I, “ is your belief of my being 
preserved here on purpose to save your life, which 
elevated you a little while ago ? For my part,” said I, 
“ there seems to be but one thing amiss in all the pros- 
pect of it.” ‘‘ What ’s that ? ” says he. Why,” said 
I, “ ’t is that, as you say, there are three or four honest 
fellows among them, which should be spared ; had they 
been all of the wicked part of the crew I should have 
thought God’s providence had singled them out to 
deliver them into your hands ; for depend upon it, 
every man of them that comes ashore are our own, and 
shall die or live as they behave to us.” 

As I spoke this with a raised voice and cheerful 
countenance, I found it greatly encouraged him ; so 
we set vigorously to our business. We had, upon the 


334 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


first appearance of the boat’s coming from the ship, 
considered of separating our prisoners, and had, in- 
deed, secured them effectually. 

Two of them, of whom the captain was less assured 
than ordinary, I sent with Friday and one of the three 
delivered men to my cave, where they were remote 
enough, and out of danger of being heard or dis- 
covered, or of finding their way out of the woods if 
they could have delivered themselves. Here they left 
them bound, but gave them provisions, and promised 
them, if they continued there quietly, to give them 
their liberty in a day or two ; but that if they at- 
tempted their escape, they should be put to death 
without mercy. They promised faithfully to bear 
their confinement with patience, and were very thank- 
ful that they had such good usage as to have provisions 
and a light left them ; for Friday gave them candles 
(such as we made ourselves) for their comfort; and 
they did not know but that he stood sentinel over 
them at the entrance. 

The other prisoners had better usage. Two of them 
were kept pinioned, indeed, because the captain was 
not free to trust them ; but the other two were taken 
into my service, upon their captain’s recommendation, 
and upon their solemnly engaging to live and die 
with us ; so with them and the three honest men we 
were seven men well armed ; and I made no doubt we 
should be able to deal well enough with the ten that 
were a-coming, considering that the captain had said 
there were three or four honest men among them also. 

As soon as they got to the place where their other 
boat lay they ran their boat into the beach, and came 
all on shore, hauling the boat up after them, which I 
was glad to see ; for I was afraid they would rather 


THE FIGHT WITH MUTINEERS. 


335 


have left the boat at an anchor some distance from the 
shore, with some hands in her to guard her, and so we 
should not be able to seize the boat. 

Being on shore, the first thing they did they ran all 
to their other boat ; and it was easy to see that they 
were under a great surprise to find her stripped, as 
above, of all that was in her, and a great hole in her 
bottom. After they had mused a while upon this, they 
set up two or three great shouts, hallooing with all 
their might, to try if they could make their compan- 
ions hear, but all was to no purpose. Then they came 
all close in a ring, and fired a volley of their small 
arms, which, indeed, we heard, and the echoes made 
the woods ring. But it was all one ; those in the cave 
we were sure could not hear, and those in our keeping, 
though they heard it well enough, yet durst give no 
answer to them. 

They were so astonished at the surprise of this that, 
as they told us afterwards, they resolved to go all on 
board again, to their ship, and let them know there 
that the men were all murdered, and the long-boat 
staved. Accordingly, they immediately launched their 
boat again, and gat all of them on board. 

The captain was terribly amazed, and even con- 
founded at this, believing they would go on board the 
ship again, and set sail, giving their comrades for lost, 
and so he should still lose the ship, which he was in 
hopes we should have recovered ; but he was quickly 
as much frighted the other way. 

They had not been long put off with the boat but 
we perceived them all coming on shore again ; but 
with this new measure in their conduct, which it seems 
they consulted together upon, viz., to leave three men 
in the boat, and the rest to go on shore, and go up 
into the country to look for their fellows. 


336 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


This was a great disappointment to us, for now we 
were at a loss what to do ; for our seizing those seven 
men on shore would be no advantage to us if we let 
the boat escape, because they would then row away to 
the ship, and then the rest of them would be sure to 
weigh and set sail, and so our recovering the ship 
would be lost. However, we had no remedy but to 
wait and see what the issue of things might present. 
The seven men came on shore, and the three who re- 
mained in the boat put her off to a good distance 
from the shore, and came to an anchor to wait for 
them; so that it was impossible for us to come at 
them in the boat. 

Those that came on shore kept close together, 
marching towards the top of the little hill under 
which my habitation lay; and we could see them 
plainly, though they could not perceive us. We could 
have been very glad they would have come nearer to 
us, so that we might have fired at them, or that they 
would have gone farther off, that we might have come 
abroad. 

But when they were come to the brow of the hill, 
where they could see a great way into the valleys and 
woods which lay towards the northeast part, and 
where the island lay lowest, they shouted and hallooed 
till they were weary ; and not caring, it seems, to 
venture far from the shore, nor far from one another, 
they sat down together under a tree, to consider of it. 
Had they thought fit to have gone to sleep there, as 
the other party of them had done, they had done the 
job for us ; but they were too full of apprehensions of 
danger to venture to go to sleep, though they could 
not tell what the danger was they had to fear neither. 

The captain made a very just proposal to me upon 


THE FIGHT WITH MUTINEERS. 


337 


this consultation of theirs, viz., that perhaps they would 
all fire a volley again, to endeavor to make their 
fellows hear, and that we should all sally upon them, 
just at the juncture when their pieces were all dis- 
charged, and they would certainly yield, and we 
should have them without bloodshed. I liked the 
proposal, provided it was done while we were near 
enough to come up to them before they could load 
their pieces again. 

But this event did not happen, and we lay still a 
long time, very irresolute what course to take. At 
length I told them there would be nothing to be done, 
in my opinion, till night ; and then, if they did not 
return to the boat, perhaps we might find a way to get 
between them and the shore, and so might use some 
stratagem with them in the boat to get them on 
shore. 

We waited a great while, though very impatient for 
their removing; and were very uneasy when, after 
long consultations, we saw them start all up, and march 
down toward the sea. It seems they had such dread- 
ful apprehensions upon them of the danger of the 
place that they resolved to go on board the ship again, 
give their companions over for lost, and so go on with 
their intended voyage with the ship. 

As soon as I perceived them go towards the shore, 
I imagined it to be, as it really was, that they had 
given over their search, and were for going back again ; 
and the captain, as soon as I told him my thoughts, 
was ready to sink at the apprehensions of it ; but I 
presently thought of a stratagem to fetch them back 
again, and which answered my end to a tittle. 

I ordered Friday and the captain’s mate to go over 
the little creek westward, towards the place where the 


338 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


savages came on shore when Friday was rescued, and 
as soon as they came to a little rising ground, at about 
half a mile distance, I bade them halloo as loud as 
they could, and wait till they found the seamen heard 
them ; that as soon as ever they heard the seamen 
answer them, they should return it again ; and then 
keeping out of sight, take a round, always answering 
when the other hallooed, to draw them as far into the 
island, and among the woods, as possible, and then 
wheel about again to me by such ways as I directed 
them. 

They were just going into the boat when Friday 
and the mate hallooed ; and they presently heard 
them, and answering, run along the shore westward, 
towards the voice they heard, when they were presently 
stopped by the creek, where the water being up, they 
could not get over, and called for the boat to come up 
and set them over, as, indeed, I expected. 

When they had set themselves over, I observed that 
the boat being gone up a good way into the creek, and, 
as it were, in a harbor within the land, they took one 
of the three men out of her to go along with them, 
and left only two in the boat, having fastened her to 
the stump of a little tree on the shore. 

This was what I wished for ; and immediately 
living Friday and the captain’s mate to their business, 
I took the rest with me, and crossing the creek out of 
their sight, we surprised the two men before they were 
aware ; one of them lying on shore, and the other 
being in the boat. The fellow on shore was between 
sleeping and waking, and going to start up. The cap- 
tain, who was foremost, ran in upon him, and knocked 
him down, and then called out to him in the boat to 
yield, or he was a dead man. 


THE FIGHT WITH MUTINEERS, 


339 


There needed very few arguments to persuade a 
single man to yield when he saw five men upon him, 
and his comrade knocked down ; besides, this was, it 
seems, one of the three who were not so hearty in the 
mutiny as the rest of the crew, and therefore was easily 
persuaded not only to yield, but afterwards to join 
very sincerely with us. 

In the meantime, Friday and the captain’s mate so 
well managed their business with the rest that they 
drew them, by hallooing and answering, from one hill 
to another, and from one wood to another, till they not 
only heartily tired them, but left them where they 
were very sure they could not reach back to the boat 
before it was dark; and, indeed, they were heartily 
tired themselves also by the time they came back to us. 

We had nothing now to do but to watch for them 
in the dark, and to fall upon them, so as to make sure 
work with them. 

It was several hours after Friday came back to me 
before they came back to their boat ; and we could 
hear the foremost of them, long before they came 
quite up, calling to those behind to come along, and 
could also hear them answer and complain how lame 
and tired they were, and not able to come any faster ; 
which was very welcome news to us. 

At length they came up to the boat ; but ’t is im- 
possible to express their confusion when they found 
the boat fast aground in the creek, the tide ebbed out, 
and their two men gone. We could hear them call to 
one another in a most lamentable manner, telling one 
another they were gotten into an enchanted island ; 
that either there were inhabitants in it, and they should 
all be murdered, or else there were devils and spirits in 
it, and they should be all carried away and devoured. 


340 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


They hallooed again, and called their two comrades 
by their names a great many times ; but no answer. 
After some time we could see them, by the little light 
there was, run about, wringing their hands like men in 
despair, and that sometimes they would go and sit 
down in the boat to rest themselves ; then come ashore 
again, and walk about again, and so the same thing 
over again. 

My men would fain have me give them leave to fall 
upon them at once in the dark ; but I was willing to 
take them at some advantage, so to spare them, and 
kill as few of them as I could ; and especially I was 
unwilling to hazard the killing any of our own men, 
knowing the other were very well armed. I resolved to 
wait, to see if they did not separate ; and, therefore, 
to make sure of them. I drew my ambuscade nearer, 
and ordered Friday and the captain to creep upon their 
hands and feet, as close to the ground as they could, 
that they might not be discovered, and get as near 
them as they could possibly, before they offered to 
fire. 

They had not been long in that posture but that the 
boatswain, who was the principal ringleader of the 
mutiny, and had now shown himself the most dejected 
and dispirited of all the rest, came walking towards 
them, with two more of their crew. The captain was 
so eager, as having this principal rogue so much in his 
power, that he could hardly have patience to let him 
come so near as to be sure of him, for they only heard 
his tongue before ; but when they came nearer, the 
captain and Friday, starting up on their feet, let fly at 
them. 

The boatswain was killed upon the spot ; the next 
man was shot into the body, and fell just by him. 


THE FIGHT WITH MUTINEERS. 341 

though he did not die till an hour or two after ; and 
the third ran for it. 

At the noise of the fire I immediately advanced 
with my whole army, which was now eight men, viz., 
myself, generalissimo ; Friday, my lieutenant-general ; 
the captain and his two men, and the three prisoners 
of war, whom we had trusted with arms. 

We came upon them, indeed, in the dark, so that 
they could not see our number ; and I made the man 
we had left in the boat, who was now one of us, call 
to them by name, to try if I could bring them to a 
parley, and so might perhaps reduce them to terms, 
which fell out just as we desired; for indeed it was 
easy to think, as their condition then was, they would 
be very willing to capitulate. So he calls out as loud 
as he could to one of them, “ Tom Smith ! Tom 
Smith ! ” Tom Smith answered immediately, “ Who ’s 
that ? Robinson ? ’’ — for it seems he knew his voice. 
The other answered, ‘‘ Ay, ay ; for God’s sake, Tom 
Smith, throw down your arms and yield, or you are all 
dead men this moment.” 

“ Who must we yield to ? Where are they ? ” says 
Smith again. “ Here they are,” says he ; “ here ’s our 
captain, and fifty men with him, have been hunting 
you this two hours ; the boatswain is killed. Will Frye 
is wounded, and I am a prisoner ; and if you do not 
yield, you are all lost.” 

“ Will they give us quarter then,” says Tom Smith, 
“ an we will yield ? ” “ I ’ll go and ask, if you prom- 

ise to yield,” says Robinson. So he asked the cap- 
tain, and the captain then calls himself out, “ You, 
Smith, you know my voice, if you lay down your arms 
immediately, and submit, you shall have your lives, 
aU but Will Atkins.” 


342 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


Upon this Will Atkins cried out, “ For God’s sake, 
captain, give me quarter ; what have I done ? They 
have been all as bad as I ; ” which, by the way, was 
not true neither ; for, it seems, this Will Atkins was 
the first man that laid hold of the captain when 
they first mutinied, and used him barbarously, in ty- 
ing his hands, and giving him injurious language. 
However, the captain told him he must lay down his 
arms at discretion, and trust to the governor’s mercy ; 
by which he meant me, for they all called me gov- 
ernor. 

In a word, they all laid down their arms, and 
begged their lives ; and I sent the man that had 
parleyed with them and two more, who bound them 
all ; and then my great army of fifty men, which, 
particularly with those three, were all but eight, came 
up, and seized upon them all, and upon their boat ; 
only that I kept myself and one more out of sight for 
reasons of state. 

Our next work was to repair the boat, and think of 
seizing the ship ; and as for the captain, now he had 
leisure to parley with them, he expostulated with 
them upon the villainy of their practices with him, 
and at length upon the farther wickedness of their 
design, and how certainly it must bring them to 
misery and distress in the end, and perhaps to the 
gallows. 

They all appeared very penitent, and begged hard 
for their lives. As for that, he told them they were 
none of his prisoners, but the commander of the 
island ; that they thought they had set him on shore 
in a barren uninhabited island ; but it had . pleased 
God so to direct them that the island was inhabited, 
and that the governor was an Englishman ; that he 


THE FIGHT WITH MUTINEERS. 


343 


might hang them all there, if he pleased ; but as he had 
given them all quarter, he supposed he would send 
them to England, to be dealt with there as justice re- 
quired, except Atkins, whom he was commanded by 
the governor to advise to prepare for death, for that 
he would be hanged in the morning. 

Though this was all a fiction of his own, yet it had 
its desired effect. Atkins fell upon his knees, to beg ^ 
the captain to intercede with the governor for his 
life ; and all the rest begged of him, for God’s sake, 
that they might not be sent to England. 

It now occurred to me that the time of our deliv- 
erance was come, and that it would be a most easy 
thing to bring these fellows in to be hearty in getting 
possession of the ship ; so I retired in the dark from 
them, that they might not see what kind of a governor 
they had, and called the captain to me. When I 
called, as at a good distance, one of the men was 
ordered to speak again, and say to the captain, “ Cap- 
tain, the commander calls for you.” And presently 
the captain replied, ‘‘ Tell his excellency I am just 
a-coming.” This more perfectly amused ^ them, and 
they all believed that the commander was just by 
with his fifty men. 

Upon the captain’s coming to me, I told him my 
project for seizing the ship, which he liked of wonder- 
fully well, and resolved to put it in execution the next 
morning. But in order to execute it with more art, 
and secure of success, I told him we must divide the 
prisoners, and that he should go and take Atkins and 
two more of the worst of them, and send them pin- 
ioned to the cave where the others lay. This was 

^ Amused here is in the sense of heguiled, a common usage in 
the eighteenth century. 


344 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


committed to Friday and the two men who came on 
shore with the captain. 

They conveyed them to the cave, as to a prison. 
And it was indeed a dismal place, especially to men 
in their condition. The others I ordered to my 
bower, as I called it, of which I have given a full de- 
scription ; and as it was fenced in, and they pinioned, 
the place was secure enough, considering they were 
upon their behavior. 

To these in the morning I sent the captain, who 
was to enter into a parley with them ; in a word, to 
try them, and tell me whether he thought they might 
be trusted or no to go on board and surprise the ship. 
He. talked to them of the injury done him, of the 
condition they were brought to ; and that though the 
governor had given them quarter for their lives as to 
the present action, yet that if they were sent to Eng- 
land they would all be hanged in chains, to be sure ; 
but that if they would join in so just an attempt as to 
recover the ship, he would have the governor’s engage- 
ment for their pardon. 

Any one may guess how readily such a proposal 
would be accepted by men in their condition. They 
fell down on their knees to the captain, and promised, 
with the deepest imprecations, that they would be 
faithful to him to the last drop, and that they should 
owe their lives to him, and would go with him all 
over the world ; that they would own him for a father 
to them as long as they lived. 

“Well,” says the captain, “I must go and tell the 
governor what you say, and see what I can do to 
bring him to consent to it.” So he brought me an 
account of the temper he found them in, and that 
he verily believed they would be faithful. However, 


THE FIGHT WITH MUTINEERS. 


345 


that we might be very secure, I told him he should go 
back again and choose out five of them, and tell them 
they might see that he did not want men, that he 
would take out those five to be his assistants, and that 
the governor would keep the other two and the three 
that were sent prisoners to the castle, my cave, as 
hostages for the fidelity of those five ; and that if they 
proved unfaithful in the execution, the five hostages 
should be hanged in chains alive upon the shore. 

This looked severe, and convinced them that the 
governor was in earnest. However, they had no way 
left them but to accept it ; and it was now the busi- 
ness of the prisoners, as much as of the captain, to 
persuade the other five to do their duty. 

Our strength was now thus ordered for the expe- 
dition. 1. The captain, his mate, and passenger. 
2. Then the two prisoners of the first gang, to whom, 
having their characters from the captain, I had given 
their liberty, and trusted them with arms. 3. The 
other two whom I had kept till now in my bower, 
pinioned, but upon the captain’s motion had now re- 
leased. 4. These five released at last ; so that they 
were twelve in all, besides five we kept prisoners in 
the cave for hostages. 

I asked the captain if he was willing to venture 
with these hands on board the ship ; for as for me 
and my man Friday, I did not think it was proper for 
us to stir, having seven men left behind, and it was 
employment enough for us to keep them asunder and 
supply them with victuals. As to the five in the cave, 
I resolved to keep them fast ; but Friday went in 
twice a day to them, to supply them with necessaries, 
and I made the other two carry provisions to a certain 
distance, where Friday was to take it. 


346 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


When I showed myself to the two hostages, it was 
with the captain, who told them I was the person the 
governor had ordered to look after them, and that it 
was the governor’s pleasure they should not stir any- 
where but by my direction ; that if they did, they 
should be fetched into the castle, and be laid in irons ; 
so that as we never suffered them to see me as governor, 
so I now appeared as another person, and spoke of the 
governor, the garrison, the castle, and the like, upon 
all occasions. 

The captain now had no difficulty before him but to 
furnish his two boats, stop the breach of one, and man 
them. He made his passenger captain of one, with 
four other men ; and himself, and his mate, and five 
more went in the other; and they contrived their 
business very well, for they came up to the ship about 
midnight. As soon as they came within call of the 
ship, he made Robinson hail them, and tell them they 
had brought off the men and the boat, but that it was 
a long time before they had found them, and the like, 
holding them in a chat till they came to the ship’s, 
side ; when the captain and the mate entering first, 
with their arms, immediately knocked down the second 
mate and carpenter with the butt-end of their mus- 
kets, being very faithfully seconded by their men. 
They secured all the rest that were upon the main 
and quarter decks, and began to fasten the hatches to 
keep them down who were below ; when the other 
boat and their men entering at the fore-chains, secured 
the forecastle of the ship, and the scuttle which went 
down into the cook-room, making three men they 
found there prisoners. 

When this was done, and all safe upon deck, the 
captain ordered the mate, with three men, to break into 


THE FIGHT WITH MUTINEERS. 


347 


the round-house, where the new rebel captain lay, and 
having taken the alarm was gotten up, and with two 
men and a boy had gotten firearms in their hands ; 
and when the mate with a crow split open the door, 
the new captain and his men fired boldly among them, 
and wounded the mate with a musket-ball, which broke 
his arm, and wounded two more of the men, but killed 
nobody. 

The mate, calling for help, rushed however into the 
round-house, wounded as he was, and with his pistol 
shot the new captain through the head, the bullet 
entering at his mouth and came out again behind one 
of his ears, so that he never spoke a word ; upon which 
the rest yielded, and the ship was taken effectually, 
without any more lives lost. 

As soon as the ship was thus secured, the captain 
ordered seven guns to be fired, which was the signal 
agreed upon with me to give me notice of his success, 
which you may be sure I was very glad to hear, having 
sat watching upon the shore for it till near two of 
the clock in the morning. 

Having thus heard the signal plainly, I laid me 
down ; and it having been a day of great fatigue to 
me, I slept very sound, till I was something surprised 
with the noise of a gun ; and presently starting up, I 
heard a man call me by the name of “ Governor,” 
“ Governor,” and presently I knew the captain’s 
voice ; when climbing up to the top of the hill, there 
he stood, and pointing to the ship, he embraced me in 
his arms. ‘‘My dear friend and deliverer,” says he, 
“ there ’s your ship, for she is all yours, and so are we, 
and all that belong to her.” I cast my eyes to the 
ship, and there she rode within little more than half a 
mile of the shore ; for they had weighed her anchor 


348 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


as soon as they were masters of her, and, the weather 
being fair, had brought her to an anchor just against 
the mouth of the little creek, and the tide being up, 
the captain had brought the pinnace in near the place 
where I at first landed my rafts and so landed just at 
my door. 

I was at first ready to sink down with the surprise ; 
for I saw my deliverance, indeed, visibly put into my 
hands, all things easy, and a large ship just ready to 
carry me away whither I pleased to go. At first, for 
some time, I was not able to answer him one word ; 
but as he had taken me in his arms, I held fast by 
him, or I should have fallen to the ground. 

He perceived the surprise, and immediately pulls a 
bottle out of his pocket, and gave me a dram of cordial, 
which he had brought on purpose for me. After I 
had drank it, I sat down upon the ground ; and though 
it brought me to myself, yet it was a good while before 
I could speak a word to him. 

All this while the poor man was in as great an 
ecstasy as I, only not under any surprise, as I was ; 
and he said a thousand kind, tender things to me, to 
compose me and bring me to myself. But such was 
the flood of joy in my breast that it put all my spirits 
into confusion. At last it broke out into tears, and in 
a little while after I recovered my speech. 

Then I took my turn, and embraced him as my 
deliverer, and we rejoiced together. I told him I 
looked upon him as a man sent from heaven to deliver 
me, and that the whole transaction seemed to be a 
chain of wonders ; that such things as these were the 
testimonies we had of a secret hand of Providence 
governing the world, and an evidence that the eyes of 
an infinite Power could search into the remotest corner 


THE FIGHT WITH MUTINEERS. 349 

of the world, and send help to the miserable whenever 
He pleased. 

I forgot not to lift up my heart in thankfulness to 
heaven ; and what heart could forbear to bless Him, 
who had not only in a miraculous manner provided for 
one in such a wilderness, and in such a desolate con- 
dition, but from whom every deliverance must always 
be acknowledged to proceed ? 

When we had talked a while, the captain told me 
he had brought me some little refreshment, such as the 
ship afforded, and such as the wretches that had been 
so long his masters had not plundered him of. Upon 
this he called aloud to the boat, and bid his men 
bring the things ashore that were for the governor ; 
and, indeed, it was a present as if I had been one, not 
that was to be carried away along with them, but as if 
I had been to dwell upon the island still, and they 
were to go without me. 

First, he had brought me a case of bottles full of 
excellent cordial waters, six large bottles of Madeira 
wine (the bottles held two quarts apiece), two pounds 
of excellent good tobacco, twelve good pieces of the 
ship’s beef, and six pieces of pork, with a bag of peas, 
and about a hundred-weight of biscuit. 

He brought me also a box of sugar, a box of flour, 
a bag full of lemons, and two bottles of lime juice, and 
abundance of other things ; but besides these, and 
what was a thousand times more useful to me, he 
brought me six clean new shirts, six very good neck- 
cloths, two pair of gloves, one pair of shoes, a hat, and 
one pair of stockings, and a very good suit of clothes 
of his own, which had been worn but very little ; in a 
word, he clothed me from head to foot. 

It was a very kind and agreeable present, as any one 


350 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


may imagine, to one in my circumstances ; but never 
was anything in the world of that kind so unpleasant, 
awkward, and uneasy as it was to me to wear such 
clothes at their first putting on. 

After these ceremonies passed, and after all his good 
things were brought into my little apartment, we began 
to consult what was to be done with the prisoners we 
had ; for it was worth considering whether we might 
venture to take them away with us or no, especially 
two of them, whom we knew to be incorrigible and 
refractory to the last degree ; and the captain said he 
knew they were such rogues that there was no obliging 
them ; and if he did carry them away, it must be in 
irons, as malefactors, to be delivered over to justice at 
the first English colony he could come at ; and I found 
that the captain himself was very anxious about it. 

Upon this I told him that, if he desired it, I durst 
undertake to bring the two men he spoke of to make 
it their own request that he should leave them upon 
the island. should be very glad of that,” says the 
captain, ‘‘ with all my heart.” 

“ Well,” says I, “ I will send for them up, and talk 
with them for you.” So I caused Friday and the two 
hostages, for they were now discharged, their comrades 
having performed their promise ; I say, I caused them 
to go to the cave and bring up the five men, pinioned 
as they were, to the bower, and keep them there till I 
came. 

After some time I came thither, dressed in my new 
habit ; and now I was called governor again. Being 
all met, and the captain with me, I caused the men to 
be brought before me, and I told them I had had a 
full account of their villainous behavior to the cap- 
tain, and how they had run away with the ship, and 


THE FIGHT WITH MUTINEERS. 


351 


were preparing to commit farther robberies, but that 
Providence had ensnared them in their own ways, and 
that they were fallen into the pit which they had 
digged for others. 

I let them know that by my direction the ship had 
been seized, that she lay now in the road, and they 
might see, by and by, that their new captain had 
received the reward of his villainy, for that they 
might see him hanging at the yard-arm ; that as to 
them, I wanted to know what they had to say why I 
should not execute them as pirates, taken in the fact, 
as by my commission they could not doubt I had au- 
thority to do. 

One of them answered in the name of the rest that 
they had nothing to say but this, that when they were 
taken the captain promised them their lives, and they 
humbly implored my mercy. But I told them I knew 
not what mercy to show them ; for as for myself, I had 
resolved to quit the island with all my men, and had 
taken passage with the captain to go for England. 
And as for the captain, he could not carry them to 
England other than as prisoners in irons, to be tried 
for mutiny, and running away with the ship ; the con- 
sequence of which, they must needs know, would be 
the gallows ; so that I could not tell which was best 
for them, unless they had a mind to take their fate in 
the island. If they desired that, I did not care, as 
I had liberty to leave it. I had some inclination to 
give them their lives, if they thought they could shift 
on shore. 

They seemed very thankful for it, said they would 
much rather venture to stay there than to be carried 
to England to be hanged ; so I left it on that issue. 

However, the captain seemed to make some diffi- 


352 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


culty of it, as if he durst not leave them there. Upon 
this I seemed a little angry with the captain, and told 
him that they were my prisoner's, not his ; and that 
seeing I had offered them so much favor, I would be 
as good as my word ; and that if he did not think fit 
to consent to it, I would set them at liberty, as I found 
them ; and if he did not like it, he might take them 
again if he could catch them. 

Upon this they appeared very thankful, and I 
accordingly set them at liberty, and bade them retire 
into the woods to the place whence they came, and I 
would leave them some firearms, some ammunition, and 
some directions how they should live very well, if they 
thought fit. 

Upon this I prepared to go on board the ship, but 
told the captain that I would stay that night to pre- 
pare my things, and desired him to go on board in the 
meantime, and keep all right in the ship, and send 
the boat on shore the next day for me ; ordering him, 
in the meantime, to cause the new captain, who was 
killed, to be hanged at the yard-arm, that these men 
might see him. 

When the captain was gone, I sent for the men up 
to me to my apartment, and entered seriously into dis- 
course with them of their circumstances. I told them 
I thought they had made a right choice ; that if the 
captain carried them away, they would certainly be 
hanged. I showed them the new captain hanging at 
the yard-arm of the ship, and told them they had 
nothing less to expect. 

When they had all declared their willingness to 
stay, I then told them I would let them into the story 
of my living there, and put them into the way of mak- 
ing it easy to them. Accordingly I gave them the 


THE FIGHT WITH MUTINEERS. 


353 


whole history of the place, and of my coming to it, 
showed them my fortifications, the way I made my 
bread, planted my corn, cured my grapes ; and in a 
word, all that was necessary to make them easy. I 
told them the story also of the sixteen Spaniards 
^ that were to be expected, for whom I left a letter, and 
made them promise to treat them in common with 
themselves. 

I left them my firearms, viz., five muskets, three 
fowling-pieces, and three swords. I had above a 
barrel and half of powder left ; for after the first 
year or two I used but little, and wasted none. I gave 
them a description of the way I managed the goats, 
and directions to milk and fatten them, and to make 
both butter and cheese. 

In a word, I gave them every part of my own 
story, and I told them I would prevail with the cap- 
tain to leave them two barrels of gunpowder more, 
and some garden seeds, which I told them I would 
have been very glad of. Also I gave them the bag 
of peas which the captain had brought me to eat, and 
bade them be sure to sow and increase them. 

Having done all this, I left them the next day, and 
went on board the ship. We prepared immediately 
to sail, but did not weigh that night. The next morn- 
ing early two of the five men came swimming to the 
ship’s side, and, making a most lamentable complaint 
of the other three, begged to be taken into the ship 
for God’s sake, for they should be murdered, and 
begged the captain to take them on board, though he 
hanged them immediately. 

Upon this the captain pretended to have no power 
without me ; but after some difficulty, and after their 
solemn promises of amendment, they were taken on 


354 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


board, and were some time after soundly whipped and 
pickled,^ after which they proved very honest and 
quiet fellows. 

Some time after this the boat was ordered on shore, 
the tide being up, with the things promised to the 
men, to which the captain, at my intercession, caused 
their chests and clothes to be added, which they took, 
and were very thankful for. I also encouraged them 
by telling them that if it lay in my way to send any 
vessel to take them in, I would not forget them. 

When I took leave of this island, I carried on 
board, for relics, the great goat-skin cap I had made, 
my umbrella, and my parrot; also I forgot not to 
take the money I formerly mentioned, which had lain 
by me so long useless that it was grown rusty or tar- 
nished, and could hardly pass for silver till it had 
been a little rubbed and handled ; as also the money 
I found in the wreck of the Spanish ship. 

^ We still have the saying “I have a rod in pickle for you/* 


CHAPTER XXX. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE LEAVES HIS ISLAND. 

And thus I left the island, the 19th of December, 
as I found by the ship’s account, in the year 1686, 
after I had been upon it eight and twenty years, two 
months, and nineteen days, being delivered from this 
second captivity the same day of the month that I first 
made my escape in the harco-longo^ from among the 
Moors of Sallee. 

In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in 
England, the 11th of June, in the year 1687, having 
been thirty and five years absent. 

When I came to England, I was as perfect a stranger 
to all the world as if I had never been known there. 
My benefactor and faithful steward, whom I had left 
in trust with my money, was alive, but had had great 
misfortunes in the world, was become a widow the 
second time, and very low in the world. I made her 
easy as to what she owed me, assuring her I would give 
her no trouble ; but on the contrary, in gratitude to 
her former care and faithfulness to me, I relieved her 
as my little stock would afford ; which, at that time, 
would indeed allow me to do but little for her ; but I 
assured her I would never forget her former kindness 
to me, nor did I forget her when I had sufficient to 
help her, as shall be observed in its place. 

I went down afterwards into Yorkshire ; but my 
father was dead, and my mother and all the family 


356 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


extinct, except that I found two sisters, and two of the 
children of one of my brothers ; and as I had been 
long ago given over for dead, there had been no pro- 
vision made for me ; so that, in a word, I found no- 
thing to relieve or assist me ; and that little money I 
had would not do much for me as to settling in the 
world. 

I met with one piece of gratitude, indeed, which I 
did not expect ; and this was, that the master of the 
ship whom I had so happily delivered, and by the 
same means saved the ship and cargo, having given 
a very handsome account to the owners of the man- 
ner how I had saved the lives of the men, and the 
ship, they invited me to meet them and some other 
merchants concerned, and all together made me a very 
handsome compliment upon the subject, and a present 
of almost c£200 sterling. 

But after making several reflections upon the cir- 
cumstances of my life, and how little way this would 
go towards settling me in the world, I resolved to go 
to Lisbon, and see if I might not come by some in- 
formation of the state of my plantation in the Brazils, 
and of what was become of my partner, who I had 
reason to suppose had some years now given me over 
for dead. 

With this view I took shipping for Lisbon, where 
I arrived in April following ; my man Friday accom- 
panying me very honestly in all these ramblings, and 
proving a most faithful servant upon all occasions. 

When I came to Lisbon, I found out, by inquiry, 
and to my particular satisfaction, my old friend the 
captain of the ship who first took me up at sea off of 
the shore of Africa. He was now grown old, and had 
left off the sea, having put his son, who was far from 


ROBINSON CRUSOE LEA VES HIS ISLAND. 357 


a young man, into his ship, and who still used the 
Brazil trade. The old man did not know me ; and, 
indeed, I hardly knew him ; but I soon brought him 
to my remembrance, and as soon brought myself to 
his remembrance when I told him who I was. 

After some passionate expressions of the old ac- 
quaintance, I inquired, you may be sure, after my 
plantation and my partner. The old man told me 
he had not been in the Brazils for about nine years ; 
but that he could assure me that, when he came away, 
my partner was living ; but the trustees, whom I had 
joined with him to take cognizance of my part, were 
both dead. That, however, he believed that I would 
have a very good account of the improvement of the 
plantation ; for that upon the general belief of my 
being cast away and drowned, my trustees had given 
in the account of the produce of my part of the plan- 
tation to the procurator-fiscal, who had appropriated 
it, in case I never came to claim it, one third to the 
king, and two thirds to the monastery of St. Augus- 
tine, to be expended for the benefit of the poor, and 
for the conversion of the Indians to the Catholic faith; 
but that if I appeared, or any one for me, to claim 
the inheritance, it should be restored ; only that the 
improvement, or annual production, being distributed 
to charitable uses, could not be restored. But he 
assured me that the steward of the king’s revenue 
from lands, and the provedidore.^ or steward of the 
monastery, had taken great care all along that the in- 
^ cumbent, that is to say, my partner, gave every year a 
faithful account of the produce, of which they re- 
ceived duly my moiety. 

I asked him if he knew to what height of improve- 
ment he had brought the plantation, and whether he 


358 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


thought it might be worth looking after ; or whether, 
on my going thither, I should meet with no obstruc- 
tion to my possessing my just right in the moiety. 

He told me he could not tell exactly to what degree 
the plantation was improved ; but this he knew, that 
my partner was grown exceeding rich upon the enjoy- 
ing but one half of it ; and that, to the best of his 
remembrance, he had heard that the king’s third of 
my part, which was, it seems, granted away to some 
other monastery or religious house, amounted to above 
two hundred moidores a year. That as to my being 
restored to a quiet possession of it, there was no ques- 
tion to be made of that, my partner being alive to 
witness my title, and my name being also enrolled in 
the register of the country. Also he told me that the 
survivors of my two trustees were very fair, honest 
people, and very wealthy;, and he believed I would not 
only have their assistance for putting me in possession, 
but would find a very considerable sum of money in 
their hands for my account, being the produce of the 
farm while their fathers held the trust, and before it 
was given up, as above ; which, as he remembered, 
was for about twelve years. 

I showed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this 
account, and inquired of the old captain how it came 
to pass that the trustees should thus dispose my effects, 
when he knew that I had made my will, and had made 
him, the Portuguese captain, my universal heir, etc. 

He told me, that was true ; but that as there was no 
proof of my being dead, he could not act as executor 
until some certain account should come of my death ; 
and that besides, he was not willing to intermeddle 
with a thing so remote ; that it was true he had regis- 
tered my will, and put in his claim ; and could he 


ROBINSON CRUSOE LEAVES HIS ISLAND. 359 


have given any account of my being dead or alive, he 
would have acted by procuration, and taken possession 
of the ingenio^ so they called the sugar-house, and had 
given his son, who was now at the Brazils, order to 
do it. 

“ But,” says the old man, “ I have one piece of 
news to tell you, which perhaps may not be so ac- 
ceptable to you as the rest ; and that is, that believing 
you were lost, and all the world believing so also, your 
partner and trustees did offer to account to me, in 
your name, for six or eight of the first years of profits, 
which I received ; but there being at that time,” says 
he, “ great disbursements for increasing the works, 
building an ingenio^ and buying slaves, it did not 
amount to near so much as afterwards it produced. 
However,” says the old man, “ I shall give you a true 
account of what I have received in all, and how I 
have disposed of it.” 

After a few days’ farther conference with this an- 
cient friend, he brought me an account of the six 
first years’ income of my plantation, signed by my 
partner and the merchant-trustees, being always de- 
livered in goods, viz., tobacco in roll, and sugar in 
chests, besides rum, molasses, etc., which is the conse- 
quence of a sugar-work ; and I found, by this account, 
that every year the income considerably increased; 
but, as above, the disbursement being large, the sum 
at first was small. However, the old man let me see 
that he was debtor to me four hundred and seventy 
moidores of gold, besides sixty chests of sugar,, and 
fifteen double rolls of tobacco, which were lost in 
his ship, he having been shipwrecked coming home 
to Lisbon, about eleven years after my leaving the 
place. 


360 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


The good man then began to complain of his mis- 
fortunes, and how he had been obliged to make use of 
my money to recover his losses, and buy him a share 
in a new ship. ‘‘ However, my old friend,” says he, 
“ you shall not want a supply in your necessity ; and 
as soon as my son returns, you shall be fully satis- 
fied.” 

Upon this he pulls out an old pouch, and gives me 
one hundred and sixty Portugal moidores in gold ; and 
giving me the writing of his title to the ship, which 
his son was gone to the Brazils in, of which he was a 
quarter-part owner, and his son another, he puts them 
both into my hands for security of the rest. 

I was too much moved with the honesty and kind- 
ness of the poor man to be able to bear this ; and re- 
membering what he had done for me, how he had 
taken me up at sea, and how generously he had used 
me on all occasions, and particularly how sincere a 
friend he was now to me, I could hardly refrain weep- 
ing at what he said to me ; therefore first I asked 
him if his circumstances admitted him to spare so 
much money at that time, and if it would not straiten 
him. He told me he could not say but it might 
straiten him a little ; but, however, it was my money, 
and I might want it more than he. 

Everything the good man said was full of affection, 
and I could hardly refrain from tears while he spoke ; 
in short, I took a hundred of the moidores, and called 
for a pen and ink to give him a receipt for them. Then 
I returned him the rest, and told him if ever I had pos- 
session of the plantation, I would return the other to 
him also, as, indeed, I afterwards did ; and that as to 
the bill of sale of his part in his son’s ship, I would 
not take it by any means ; but that if I wanted the 


ROBINSON CRUSOE LEA VES HIS ISLAND. 361 


money, I found he was honest enough to pay me : and 
if I did not, but came to receive what he gave me 
reason to expect, I would never have a penny more 
from him. 

When this was passed, the old man began to ask 
me if he should put me into a method to make my 
claim to my plantation. I told him I thought to go 
over to it myself. He said I might do so if I pleased ; 
but that if I did not, there were ways enough to secure 
my right, and immediately to appropriate the profits to 
my use ; and as there were ships in the river of Lisbon 
just ready to go away to Brazil, he made me enter my 
name in a public register, with his affidavit, affirming, 
upon oath, that I was alive, and that I was the same 
person who took up the land for the planting the said 
plantation at first. 

This being regularly attested by a notary, and a 
procuration affixed, he directed me to send it, with a 
letter of his writing, to a merchant of his acquaintance 
at the place, and then proposed my staying with him 
till an account came of the return. 

Never anything was more honorable than the pro- 
ceedings upon this procuration ; for in less than seven 
months I received a large packet from the survivors of 
my trustees, the merchants, for whose account I went 
to sea, in which were the following particular letters 
and papers enclosed. 

First, there was the account-current of the produce 
of my farm or plantation from the year when their 
fathers had balanced with my old Portugal captain, 
being for six years ; the balance appeared to be 1174 
moidores in my favor. ' 

Secondly, there was the account of four years more, 
while they kept the effects in their hands, before the 


362 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


government claimed tlie administration, as being the 
effects of a person not to be found, which they called 
civil death ; and the balance of this, the value of the 
plantation increasing, amounted to 38,892 crusadoes, 
which made 3241 moidores. 

Thirdly, there was the prior of the Augustines’ 
account, who had received the profits for above four- 
teen years ; but not being to account for what was 
disposed to the hospital, very honestly declared he had 
872 moidores not distributed, which he acknowledged 
to my account ; as to the king’s part, that refunded 
nothing. 

There was a letter of my partner’s congratulating me 
very affectionately upon my being alive, giving me an 
account how the estate was improved, and what it pro- 
duced a year, with a particular of the number of squares 
or acres that it contained; how planted, how many 
slaves there were upon it, and making two and twenty 
crosses for blessings, told me he had said so many Ave 
Marias to thank the Blessed Virgin that I was alive ; 
inviting me very passionately to come over and take 
possession of my own ; and in the meantime, to give 
him orders to whom he should deliver my effects, if I 
did not come myself ; concluding with a hearty tender 
of his friendship, and that of his family ; and sent me 
as a present seven fine leopards’ skins, which he had, 
it seems, received from Africa by some other ship 
which he had sent thither, and who, it seems, had 
made a better voyage than I. He sent me also five 
chests of excellent sweetmeats, and a hundred pieces 
of gold uncoined, not quite so large as moidores. By 
the same fleet, my two merchant-trustees shipped me 
twelve hundred chests of sugar, eight hundred rolls of 
tobacco, and the rest of the whole account in gold. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE LEA VES HIS ISLAND. 363 


I might well say now, indeed, that the latter end of 
Job was better than the beginning. It is impossible to 
express the flutterings of my very heart when I looked 
over these letters, and especially when I found all my 
wealth about me ; for as the Brazil ships come all in 
fleets, the same ships which brought my letters brought 
my goods, and the effects were safe in the river before 
the letters came to my hand. In a word, I turned 
pale, and grew sick ; and had not the old man run and 
fetched me a cordial, I believe the sudden surprise of 
joy had overset Nature, and I had died upon the spot. 

Nay, after that I continued very ill, and was so 
some hours, till a physician being sent for, and some- 
thing of the real cause of my illness being known, he 
ordered me to be let blood, after which I had relief, 
and grew well ; but I verily believe, if it had not been 
eased by a vent given in that manner to the spirits, I 
should have died. 

I was now master, all on a sudden, of above five 
thousand pounds sterling in money, and had an estate, 
as I might well call it, in the Brazils of above a thou- 
sand pounds a year, as sure as an estate of lands in 
England ; and in a word, I was in a condition which 
I scarce knew how to understand, or how to compose 
myself for the enjoyment of it. 

The first thing I did was to recompense my original 
benefactor, my good old captain, who had been first 
charitable to me in my distress, kind to me in my be- 
ginning, and honest to me at the end. I showed him 
all that was sent me. I told him that, next to the 
providence of Heaven, which disposes all things, it 
was owing to him ; and that it now lay on me to 
reward him, which I would do a hundredfold. So I 
first returned to him the hundred moidores I had 


364 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


received of him ; then I sent for a notary, and caused 
him to draw up a general release or discharge for the 
four hundred and seventy moidores which he had ac- 
knowledged he owed me in the fullest and firmest 
manner possible ; after which I caused a procuration 
to be drawn, empowering him to be my receiver of the 
annual profits of my plantation, and appointing my 
partner to account to him, and make the returns by 
the usual fleets to him in my name ; and a clause in 
the end, being a grant of one hundred moidores a 
year to him, during his life, out of the effects, and 
fifty moidores a year to his son after him, for his life ; 
and thus I requited my old man. 

I was now to consider which way to steer my course 
next, and what to do with the estate that Providence 
had thus put into my hands ; and, indeed, I had more 
care upon my head now than I had in my silent state 
of life in the island, where I wanted nothing but what 
I had, and had nothing but what I wanted ; whereas I 
had now a great charge upon me, and my business was 
how to secure it. I had ne’er a cave now to hide my 
money in, or a place where it might lie without lock or 
key till it grew mouldy and tarnished before anybody 
would meddle with it. On the contrary, I knew not 
where to put it, or whom to trust with it. My old 
patron, the captain, indeed, was honest, and that was 
the only refuge I had. 

In the next place, my interest in the Brazils seemed 
to summon me thither ; but now I could not tell how 
to think of going thither till I had settled my affairs, 
and left my effects in some safe hands behind me. At 
first I thought of my old friend the widow, who I 
knew was honest, and would be just to me ; but then 
she was in years, and but poor, and for aught I knew 


ROBINSON CRUSOE LEA VES HIS ISLAND. 365 


might be in debt ; so that, in a word, I had no way 
but to go back to England myself, and take my effects 
with me. 

It was some months, however, before I resolved 
upon this ; and therefore, as I had rewarded the old 
captain fully, and to his satisfaction, who had been my 
former benefactor, so I began to think of my poor 
widow, whose husband had been my first benefactor, 
and she, while it was in her power, my faithful steward 
and instructor. So the first thing I did, I got a 
merchant in Lisbon to write to his correspondent in 
London, not only to pay a bill, but to go find her 
out, and carry her in money an hundred pounds from 
me, and to talk with her, and comfort her in her 
poverty, by telling her she should, if I lived, have a 
further supply. At the same time I sent my two sisters 
in the country each of them an hundred pounds, they 
being, though not in want, yet not in very good circum- 
stances ; one having been married, and left a widow ; 
and the other having a husband not so kind to her as 
he should be. 

But among all my relations or acquaintances, I could 
not yet pitch upon one to whom I durst commit the 
gross of m}^ stock, that I might go away to the Brazils, 
and leave things safe behind me ; and this greatly per- 
plexed me. 

I had once a mind to have gone to the Brazils and 
have settled myself there, for I was, as it were, 
naturalized to the place. But I had some little scruple 
in my mind about religion, which insensibly drew me 
back, of which I shall say more presently. However, 
it was not religion that kept me from going there for 
the present ; and as I had made no scruple of being 
openly of the religion of the country all the while I 


366 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


was among them, so neither did I yet; only that, 
now and then, having of late thought more of it than 
formerly, when I began to think of living and dying 
among them, I began to regret my having professed 
myself a Papist, and thought it might not be the best 
religion to die with. 

But, as I have said, this was not the main thing that 
kept me from going to the Brazils, but that really I 
did not know with whom to leave my effects behind 
me ; so I resolved, at last, to go to England with it, 
where, if I arrived, I concluded I should make some 
acquaintance, or find some relations, that would be 
faithful to me ; and accordingly I prepared to go for 
England with all my wealth. 

In order to prepare things for my going home, I 
first, the Brazil fleet being just going away, resolved 
to give answers suitable to the just and faithful account 
of things I had from thence. And first, to the prior 
of St. Augustine I wrote a letter full of thanks for 
their just dealings, and the offer of the 872 moidores 
which was undisposed of, which I desired might be 
given, 600 to the monastery, and 372 to the poor, as 
the prior should direct, desiring the good padre^s 
prayers for me, and the like. 

I wrote next a letter of thanks to my two trustees, 
with all the acknowledgment that so much justice and 
honesty called for. As for sending them any present, 
they were far above having any occasion of it. 

Lastly, I wrote to my partner, acknowledging his 
industry in the improving the plantation, and his in- 
tegrity in increasing the stock of the works, giving 
him instructions for his future government of my part, 
according to the powers I had left with my old patron, 
to whom I desired him to send whatever became due 


R OBINSON CR USOE LEA VES HIS ISLAND. 367 

to me till lie should hear from me more particularly ; 
assuring him that it was my intention not only to come 
to him, but to settle myself there for the remainder of 
my life. To this I added a very handsome present of 
some Italian silks for his wife and two daughters, for 
such the captain’s son informed me he had, with two 
pieces of fine English broadcloth, the best I could get 
in Lisbon, five pieces of black baize, and some Flanders 
lace of a good value. 

Having thus settled my affairs, sold my cargo, and 
turned all my effects into good bills of exchange, my 
next difficulty was which way to go to England. I 
had been accustomed enough to the sea, and yet I had 
a strange aversion to going to England by sea at 
that time ; and though I could give no reason for it, 
yet the difficulty increased upon me so much that 
though I had once shipped my baggage in order to 
go, yet I altered my mind, and that not once, but two 
or three times. 

It is true I had been very unfortunate by sea, and 
this might be some of the reason ; but let no man 
slight the strong impulses of his own thoughts in cases 
of such moment. Two of the ships which I had singled 
out to go in, I mean more particularly singled out than 
any other, that is to say, so as in one of them to put 
my things on board, and in the other to have agreed 
with the captain ; I say, two of these ships miscarried, 
viz., one was taken by the Algerines, and the other 
was cast away on the Start, near Torbay, and all the 
people drowned except three ; so that in either of those 
vessels I had been made miserable ; and in which 
most, it was hard to say. 

Having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my old 
pilot, to whom I communicated everything, pressed me 


368 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


earnestly not to go by sea, but either to go by land to 
the Grroy^ie, and cross over the Bay of Biscay to 
Rochelle, from whence it was but an easy and safe 
journey by land to Paris, and so to Calais and Dover ; 
or to go up to Madrid, and so all the way by land 
through France. 

In a word, I was so prepossessed against my going 
by sea at all, except from Calais to Dover, that I 
resolved to travel all the way by land ; which, as I 
was not in haste, and did not value the charge, was by 
much the pleasanter way. And to make it more so, 
my old captain brought an English gentleman, the son 
of a merchant in Lisbon, who was willing to travel 
with me ; after which we picked up two more English 
merchants also, and two young Portuguese gentlemen, 
the last going to Paris only ; so that we were in all 
six of us, and five servants ; the two merchants and 
the two Portuguese contenting themselves with one 
servant between two, to save the charge ; and as for 
me, I got an English sailor to travel with me as a 
servant, besides my man Friday, who was too much a 
stranger to be capable of supplying the place of a ser- 
vant on the road. 

In this manner I set out from Lisbon ; and our com- 
pany being all very well mounted and armed, we made 
a little troop, whereof they did me the honor to call me 
captain, as well because I was the oldest man, as be- 
cause I had two servants, and indeed was the original 
of the whole journey. 

As I have troubled you with none of my sea jour- 
nals, so I shall trouble you now, with none of my land 
journal ; but some adventures that happened to us in 
this tedious and difficult journey I must not omit. 

When we came to Madrid, we being all of us 


E OBINSON CR USOE LEA VES HIS ISLAND. 369 


strangers to Spain, were willing to stay some time to 
see the court of Spain, and to see what was worth 
observing ; but it being the latter part of the summer 
we hastened away, and set out from Madrid about the 
middle of October ; but when we came to the edge of 
Navarre, we were alarmed at several towns on the way 
with an account that so much snow was fallen on the 
French side of the mountains, that several travellers 
were obliged to come back to Pampeluna, after having 
attempted, at an extreme hazard, to pass on. 

When we came to Pampeluna itself, we found it so 
indeed ; and to me, that had been always used to a hot 
climate, and indeed to countries where we could scarce 
bear any clothes on, the cold was insufferable ; nor 
indeed was it more painful than it was surprising to 
come but ten days before out of the Old Castile, where 
the weather was not only warm, but very hot, and 
immediately to feel a wind from the Pyrenean moun- 
tains so very keen, so severely cold, as to be intolerable, 
and to endanger benumbing and perishing of our fin- 
gers and toes. Poor Friday was really frighted when 
he saw the mountains all covered with snow, and felt 
cold weather, which he had never seen or felt before 
in his life. 

To mend the matter,^ when we came to Pampeluna 
it continued snowing with so much violence and so 
long, that the people said winter was come before its 
time ; and the roads, which were difficult before, were 
now quite impassable ; for, in a word, the snow lay in 
some places too thick for us to travel, and being not 
hard frozen, as is the case in northern countries, 
there was no going without being in danger of being 

1 We should expect some such phrase as ‘‘to make matters 
worse ; ’’ mend here is “ to add to.” 


370 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


buried alive every step. We stayed no less than 
twenty days at Pampeluna; when seeing the winter 
coining on, and no likelihood of its being better, for 
it was the severest winter all over Europe that had 
been known in the memory of man, I proposed that 
we should all go away to Fontarabia, and there take 
shipping for Bordeaux, which was a very little voyage. 

But while we were considering this, there came in 
four French gentlemen, who having been stopped on 
the French side of the passes, as we were on the 
Spanish, had found out a guide, who, traversing the 
country near the head of Languedoc, had brought 
them over the mountains by such ways that they were 
not much incommoded with the snow ; and where they 
met with snow in any quantity, they said it was 
frozen hard enough to bear them and their horses. 

We sent for this guide, who told us he would 
undertake to carry us the same way with no hazard 
from the snow, provided we were armed sufficiently to 
protect us from wild beasts ; for he said, upon these 
great snows it was frequent for some wolves to show 
themselves at the foot of the mountains, being made 
ravenous for want of food, the ground being covered 
with snow. W e told him we were well enough pre- 
pared for such creatures as they were, if he would 
ensure us from a kind of two-legged wolves, which, 
we were told, we were in most danger from, especially 
on the French side of the mountains. 

He satisfied us there was no danger of that kind in 
the way that we were to go ; so we readily agreed to 
follow him, as did also twelve other gentlemen, with 
their servants, some French, some Spanish, who, as I 
said, had attempted to go, and were obliged to come 
back again. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE LEAVES HIS ISLAND. 371 


Accordingly we all set out from Pampeluna, with 
our guide, on the 15th of November ; and, indeed, I 
was surprised when, instead of going forward, he came 
directly back with us on the same road that we came 
from Madrid, above twenty miles ; when being passed 
two rivers, and come into the plain country, we found 
ourselves in a warm climate again, where the country 
was pleasant, and no snow to be seen; but on a 
sudden, turning to his left, he approached the moun- 
^ins another way ; and though it is true the hills and 
precipices looked dreadful, yet he made so many tours, 
such meanders, and led us by such winding ways, that 
we were insensibly passed the height of the mountains 
without being much encumbered with the snow ; and 
all on a sudden he showed us the pleasant fruitful 
provinces of Languedoc and Gascoign, all green and 
flourishing, though, indeed, it was at a great distance, 
and we had some rough way to pass yet. 

We were a little uneasy, however, when we found 
it snowed one whole day and night so fast that we 
could not travel ; but he bid us be easy, we should 
soon be past it all. We found, indeed, that we be- 
gan to descend every day, and to come more north 
than before ; and so, depending upon our guide, we 
went on. 

It was about two hours before night when, our 
guide being something before us, and not just in sight, 
out rushed three monstrous wolves, and after them a 
bear, out of a h 9 llow way adjoining to a thick wood. 
Two of the wolves flew upon the guide, and had he 
been half a mile before us he had been devoured 
indeed before we could have helped him. One of 
them fastened upon his horse, and the other attacked 
the man with that violence that he had not time. 


372 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


or not presence of mind enough, to draw his pistol, 
but hallooed and cried out to us most lustily. My 
man Friday being next to me, I bid him ride up, 
and see what was the matter. As soon as Friday 
came in sight of the man, he hallooed as loud as 
t’ other, ‘‘ O master ! O master ! ” but, like a bold fel- 
low, rode directly up to the poor man, and with his 
pistol shot the wolf that attacked him into ^ the head. 

It was happy for the poor man that it was my man 
Friday, for he, having been used to that kind of 
creature in his country, had no fear upon him, but 
went close up to him and shot him, as above ; whereas 
any of us would have fired at a farther distance, and 
have perhaps either missed the wolf, or endangered 
shooting the man. 

But it was enough to have terrified a bolder man 
than I; and, indeed, it alarmed all our company, 
when, with the noise of Friday’s pistol, we heard on 
both sides the dismallest howling of wolves ; and the 
noise, redoubled by the echo of the mountains, that it 
was to us as if there had been a prodigious multitude of 
them ; and perhaps, indeed, there was not such a few 
as that we had no cause of apprehensions. 

However, as Friday had killed this wolf, the other 
that had fastened upon the horse left him immediately 
and fled, having happily fastened upon his head, where 
the bosses of the bridle had stuck in his teeth, so that 
he had not done him much hurt. The man indeed 
was most hurt ; for the raging creature had bit him 
twice, once on the arm, and the other time a little 
above his knees ; and he was just as it were tumbling 
down by the disorder of his horse, when Friday came 
up and shot the wolf. 

^ A more specific and more rational usage which has gone by. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE LEAVES HIS ISLAND. 373 


It is easy to suppose that at the noise of Friday’s 
pistol we all mended our pace, and rid up as fast as 
the way, which was very difficult, would give us leave, 
to see what was the matter. As soon as we came 
clear of the trees, which blinded us before, we saw 
clearly what had been the case, and how Friday had 
disengaged the poor guide, though we did not presently 
discern what kind of creature it was he had killed. 

But never was a fight managed so hardily, and in 
such a surprising manner, as that which followed 
between Friday and the bear, which gave us all, 
though at first we were surprised and afraid for him, 
the greatest diversion imaginable. As the bear is a 
heavy, clumsy creature and does not gallop as the 
wolf does, who is swift and light, so he has two par- 
ticular qualities, which generally are the rule of his 
actions : first, as to men, who are not his proper prey ; 
I say, not his proper prey, because, though I cannot 
say what excessive hunger might do, which was now 
their case, the ground being all covered with snow; 
but as to men, he does not usually attempt them, unless 
they first attack him. On the contrary, if you meet 
him in the woods, if you don’t meddle with him, he 
won’t meddle with you ; but then you must take care 
to be very civil to him, and give him the road, for he 
is a very nice gentleman. He won’t go a step out of 
his way for a prince ; nay, if you are really afraid, 
your best way is to look another way, and keep going 
on ; for sometimes if you stop, and stand still, and 
look steadily at him, he takes it for an affront ; but 
if you throw or toss anything at him, and it hits 
him, though it were but a bit of a stick as big as your 
•finger, he takes it for an affront, and sets all his 
other business aside to pursue his revenge ; for he will 


374 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


have satisfaction in point of honor. That is his first 
quality ; the next is, that if he be once affronted, he 
will never leave you, night or day, till he has his re- 
venge, but follows, at a good round rate, till he over- 
takes you. 

My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when 
we came up to him he was helping him off from his 
horse ; for the man was both hurt and frighted, and 
indeed the last more than the first ; when, on the sud- 
den, we spied the bear come out of the wood, and a 
vast monstrous one it was, the biggest by far that ever 
I saw. We were all a little surprised when we saw 
him ; but when Friday saw him, it was easy to see joy 
and courage in the fellow’s countenance. ‘‘ O ! O ! 
O ! ” says Friday, three times pointing to him. “ Oh, 
master ! you give me te leave ; me shakee te hand 
with him ; me make you good laugh.” 

I was surprised to see the fellow so pleased. You 
fool you,” says I, he wiU eat you up.” “ Eatee me 
up ! eatee me up ! ” says Friday, twice over again ; 
‘‘ me eatee him up ; me make you good laugh ; you 
all stay here, me show you good laugh.” So down he 
sits, and gets his boots off in a moment, and put on a 
pair of pumps, as we call the flat shoes they wear, 
and which he had in his pocket, gives my other ser- 
vant his horse, and with his gun away he flew, swift 
like the wind. 

The bear was walking softly on, and offered to 
meddle with nobody till Friday, coming pretty near, 
calls to him, as if the bear could understand him. 
‘‘Hark ye, hark ye,” says Friday, “me speakee wit 
you.” We followed at a distance ; for now being 
come down on the Gascoign side of the mountains, 
we were entered a vast great forest, where the country 


ROBINSON CRUSOE LEAVES HIS ISLAND. 375 


was plain and pretty open, though many trees in it 
scattered here and there. 

Friday, who had, as we say, the heels of the bear, 
came up with him quickly, and takes up a great stone 
and throws at him, and hit him just on the head, but 
did him no more harm than if he had thrown it 
against a wall. But it answered Friday’s end, for the 
rogue was so void of fear that he did it purely to 
make the bear follow him, and show us some laugh, 
as he called it. 

As soon as the bear felt the stone, and saw him, he 
turns about, and comes after him, taking devilish long 
strides, and shuffling along at a strange rate, so as 
would have put a horse to a middling gallop. Away 
runs Friday, and takes his course as if he run towards 
us for help ; so we all resolved to fire at once upon 
the bear, and deliver my man ; though I was angry 
at him heartily for bringing the bear back upon us, 
when he was going about his own business another 
way ; and especially I was angry that he had turned 
the bear upon us, and then run away ; and I called 
out, ‘‘You dog,” said I, “ is this your making us 
laugh ? Come away, and take your horse, that we may 
shoot the creature.” He hears me, and cries out, “ No 
shoot, no shoot; stand still, you get much laugh.” 
And as the nimble creature run two feet for the 
beast’s one, he turned on a sudden, on one side of us, 
and seeing a great oak-tree fit for his purpose, he 
beckoned to us to follow ; and doubling his pace, he 
gets nimbly up the tree, laying his gun down upon the 
ground, at about five or six yards from the bottom of 
the tree. 

The bear soon came to the tree, and we followed at 
a distance. The first thing he did, he stopped at the 


376 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


gun, smelt to it, but let it lie, and up lie scrambles 
into the tree, climbing like a cat, though so mon- 
strously heavy. I was amazed at the folly, as I 
thought it, of my man, and could not for my life see 
anything to laugh at yet, till seeing the bear get up 
the tree, we all rode nearer to him. 

When we came to the tree, there was Friday got 
out to the small end of a large limb of the tree, and 
the bear got about halfway to him. As soon as the 
bear got out to that part where the limb of the tree 
was weaker, Ha ! ” says he to us, “ now you see me 
teachee the bear dance.” So he falls a-jumping and 
shaking the bough, at which the bear began to totter, 
but stood still, and began to look behind him, to see 
how he should get back. Then, indeed, we did laugh 
heartily. But Friday had not done with him by a 
great deal. When he sees him stand still, he calls 
out to him again, as if he had supposed the bear 
could speak English, What, you no come farther? 
pray you come farther ; ” so he left jumping and shak- 
ing the tree ; and the bear, just as if he had under- 
stood what he said, did come a little farther ; then he 
fell a-jumping again, and the bear stopped again. 

We thought now was a good time to knock him on 
the head, and I called to Friday to stand still, and we 
would shoot the bear ; but he cried out earnestly, ‘‘ O 
pray ! O pray ! no shoot, me shoot by and then ; ” he 
would have said by and by. However, to shorten the 
story, Friday danced so much, and the bear stood so 
ticklish, that we had laughing enough indeed, but still 
could not imagine what the fellow would do ; for first 
we thought he depended upon shaking the bear off ; 
and we found the bear was too cunning for that too ; 
for he would not go out far enough to be thrown 


ROBINSON CRUSOE LEAVES HIS ISLAND. 377 


down, but clings fast with his great broad claws and 
feet, so that we could not imagine what would be the 
end of it, and where the jest would be at last. 

But Friday put us out of doubt quickly ; for seeing 
the bear cling fast to the bough, and that he would not 
be persuaded to come any farther, “ Well, well,” says 
Friday, “ you no come farther, me go, me go ; you no 
come to me, me go come to you ; ” and upon this he 
goes out to the smallest end of the bough, where it 
would bend with his weight, and gently lets himself 
down by it, sliding down the bough till he came near 
enough to jump down on his feet, and away he ran to 
his gun, takes it up, and stands still. 

‘‘ Well,” said I to him, ‘‘Friday, what will you do 
now? Why don’t you shoot him?” “No shoot,” 
says Friday, “ no yet ; me shoot now, me no kill ; me 
stay, give you one more laugh.” And, indeed, so he 
did, as you will see presently ; for when the bear sees 
his enemy gone, he comes back from the bough where 
he stood, but did it mighty leisurely, looking behind 
him every step, and coming backward till he got into 
the body of the tree ; then with the same hinder end 
foremost he comes down the tree, grasping it wdth his 
claws, and moving one foot at a time, very leisurely. 
At this juncture, and just before he could set his hind 
feet upon the ground, Friday stepped up close to him, 
clapped the muzzle of his piece into his ear, and shot 
him dead as a stone. 

Then the rogue turned about to see if we did not 
laugh ; and when he saw we were pleased by our 
looks, he falls a-laughing himself very loud. “ So we 
kill bear in my country,” says Friday. “ So you kill 
them ? ” says I ; “ why, you have no guns.” “ No,” 
says he, “ no gun, but shoot great much long arrow.” 


378 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


This was indeed a good diversion to us ; but we 
were still in a wild place, and our guide very much 
hurt, and what to do we hardly knew. The howling of 
wolves ran much in my head ; and indeed, except the 
noise I once heard on the shore of Africa, of which I 
have said something already, I never heard anything 
that filled me with so much horror. 

These things, and the approach of night, called us 
off, or else, as Friday*^ would have had us, we should 
certainly have taken the skin of this monstrous creature 
off, which was worth saving ; but we had three leagues 
to go, and our guide hastened us ; so we left him, and 
went forward on our journey. 

The ground was still covered with snow, though not 
so deep and dangerous as on the mountains ; and the 
ravenous creatures, as we heard afterwards, were come 
down into the forest and plain country, pressed by 
hunger to seek for food, and had done a great deal 
of mischief in the villages, where they surprised the 
country people, killed a great many of their sheep and 
horses, and some people too. 

We had one dangerous place to pass, which our 
guide told us if there were any more wolves in the 
country we should find them there ; and this was in a 
small plain, surrounded with woods on every side, and 
a long narrow defile, or lane, which we were to pass 
to get through the wood, and then we should come to 
y the village where we were to lodge. 

It was within half an hour of sunset when we 
entered the first wood, and a little after sunset when 
we came into the plain. We met with nothing in the 
first wood, except that, in a little plain within the 
wood, which was not above two furlongs over, we saw 
five great wolves cross the road, full speed, one after 


ROBINSON CRUSOE LEAVES HIS ISLAND. 379 


another, as if they had been in chase of some prey, 
and had it in view ; they took no notice of us, and 
were gone and out of our sight in a few moments. 
Upon this our guide, who, by the way, was a wretched 
faint-hearted fellow, bid us keep in a ready posture, 
for he believed there were more wolves a-coming. 

We kept our arms ready, and our eyes about us; 
but we saw no more wolves till we came through that 
wood, which was near half a league, and entered the 
plain. As soon as we came into the plain, we had 
occasion enough to look about us. The first object we 
met with was a dead horse, that is to say, a poor horse 
which the wolves had killed, and at least a dozen of 
them at work ; we could not say eating of him, but 
picking of his bones rather, for they had eaten up all 
the flesh before. 

We did not think fit to disturb them at their feast, 
neither did they take much notice of us. Friday 
would have let fly at them, but I would not suffer him 
by any mean's, for I found we were like to have more 
business upon our hands than we were aware of. We 
were not gone half over the plain, but we began to 
hear the wolves howl in the wood on our left in a 
frightful manner, and presently after we saw about a 
hundred coming on directly towards us, all in a body, 
and most of them in a line, as regularly as an army 
drawn up by experienced officers. I scarce knew in 
what manner to receive them, but found to draw our- 
selves in a close line was the only way ; so we formed 
in a moment ; but that we might not have too much 
interval, I ordered that only every other man should 
fire, and that the others who had not fired should 
stand ready to give them a second volley immediately, 
if they continued to advance upon us ; and that then 


380 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


those who had fired at first should not pretend to load 
their fusees again, but stand ready with every one a 
pistol, for we were all armed with a fusee and a pair 
of pistols each man ; so we were, by this method, able 
to fire six volleys, half of us at a time. However, at 
present we had no necessity ; for upon firing the first 
volley the enemy made a full stop, being terrified as 
well with the noise as with the fire. Four of them, 
being shot into the head, dropped ; several others were 
wounded, and went bleeding off, as we could see by 
the snow. I found they stopped, but did not imme- 
diately retreat ; whereupon, remembering that I had 
been told that the fiercest creatures were terrified at 
the voice of a man, I caused all our company to halloo 
as loud as we could ; and I found the notion not alto- 
gether mistaken, for upon our shout they began to 
retire and turn about. Then I ordered a second 
volley to be fired in their rear, which put them to the 
gallop, and away they went to the woods. 

This gave us leisure to charge our pieces again ; and 
that we might lose no time, we kept going. But we 
had but little more than loaded our fusees, and put 
ourselves into a readiness, when we heard a terrible 
noise in the same wood, on our left, only that it was 
farther onward, the same way we were to go. 

The night was coming on, and the light began to be 
dusky, which made it worse on our side ; but the noise 
increasing, we could easily perceive that it was the 
howling and yelling of those hellish creatures ; and on 
a sudden, we perceived two or three troops of wolves, 
one on our left, one behind us, and one on our front, 
so that we seemed to be surrounded with them. How- 
ever, as they did not fall upon us, we kept our way 
forward as fast as we could make our horses go, which, 


ROBINSON CRUSOE LEAVES HIS ISLAND. 381 

the way being very rough, was only a good large trot, 
and in this manner we came in view of the entrance of 
a wood, through which we were to j)ass, at the farther 
side of the plain ; but we were greatly surprised when, 
coming nearer the lane, or pass, we saw a confused 
number of wolves standing just at the entrance. 

On a sudden, at another opening of the wood, we 
heard the noise of a gun, and, looking that way, out 
rushed a horse, with a saddle and a bridle on him, flying 
like the wind, and sixteen or seventeen wolves after 
him, full speed; indeed, the horse had the lieels of 
them ; but as we supposed that he could not hold it at 
that rate, we doubted not^but they would get up with 
him at last, and no question but they did. 

But here we had a most horrible sight ; for riding 
up to the entrance where the horse came out, we found 
the carcass of another horse and of two men devoured 
by the ravenous creatures ; and one of the men was no 
doubt the same whom we heard fire the gun, for there 
lay a gun just by him fired off ; but as to the man, his 
head and the upper part of his body was eaten up. 

This filled us with horror, and we knew not what 
course to take ; but the creatures resolved us soon, for 
they gathered about us presently in hopes of prey, and 
I verily believe there were three hundred of them. It 
happened very much to our advantage that, at the 
entrance into the wood, but a little way from it, there 
lay some large timber-trees, which had been cut down 
the summer before, and I suppose lay there for carriage. 
I drew my little troop in among those trees, and pla- 
cing ourselves in a line behind one long tree, I advised 
them all to light, and keeping that tree before us for 
a breastwork, to stand in a triangle, or three fronts, 
enclosing our horses in the centre. 


382 


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 


We did so, and it was well we did ; for never was 
a more furious charge than the creatures made upon us 
in the place. They came on us with a growling kind 
of a noise, and mounted the piece of timber, which, as 
I said, was our breastwork, as if they were only rushing 
upon their prey ; and this fury of theirs, it seems, was 
principally occasioned by their seeing our horses behind 
us, which was the prey they aimed at. I ordered our 
men to fire as before, every other man ; and they took 
their aim so sure that indeed they killed several of the 
wolves at the first volley ; but there was a necessity to 
keep a continual firing, for they came on like devils, 
those behind pushing on those before. 

When we had fired our second volley of our fusees, 
we thought they stopped a little, and I hoped they 
would have gone off ; but it was but a moment, for 
others came forward again ; so we fired two volleys 
of our pistols ; and I believe in these four firings we 
had killed seventeen or eighteen of them, and lamed 
twice as many, yet they came on again. 

I was loath to spend our last shot too hastily ; so I 
called my servant, not my man Friday, for he was 
better employed, for with the greatest dexterity imag- 
inable he had charged my fusee and his own while 
we were engaged; but as I said, I called my other 
man, and giving him a horn of powder, I bade him 
lay a train all along the piece of timber, and let it be 
a large train. He did so, and had but just time to 
get away when the wolves came up to it, and some were 
got up upon it, when I, snapping an uncharged pistol 
close to the powder, set it on fire. Those that were 
upon the timber were scorched with it, and six or 
seven of them fell, or rather jumped, in among us with 
the force and fright of the fire. We despatched these 


ROBINSON CRUSOE LEAVES HIS ISLAND, 383 

in an instant, and the rest were so frighted with the 
light, which the night, for it was now very near dark, 
made more terrible, that they drew back a little ; 
upon which I ordered our last pistol to be fired off 
in one volley, and after that we gave a shout. Upon 
this the wolves turned tail, and we sallied immediately 
upon near twenty lame ones, whom we found struggling 
on the ground, and fell a-cutting them with our swords, 
which answered our expectation ; for the crying and 
howling they made was better understood by their 
fellows, so that they all fled and left us. 

We had, first and last, killed about threescore of 
them, and had it been daylight we had killed many 
more. The field of battle being thus cleared, we 
made forward again, for we had still near a league to 
go. We heard the ravenous creatures howl and yell 
in the woods as we went several times, and sometimes 
we fancied we saw some of them, but the snow daz- 
zling our eyes, we were not certain. So in about an 
hour more we came to the town where we were to 
lodge, which we found in a terrible fright, and all in 
arms ; for it seems that the night before the wolves 
and some bears had broke into the village in the night, 
and put them in a terrible fright ; and they were obliged 
to keep guard night and day, but especially in the 
night to preserve their cattle, and, indeed, their peo- 
ple. 

The next morning our guide was so ill, and his 
limbs swelled with the rankling of his two wounds, 
that he could go no farther ; so we were obliged to 
take a new guide there, and go to Toulouse, where we 
found a warm climate, a fruitful, pleasant country, 
and no snow, no wolves, or anything like them. But 
when we told our story at Toulouse, they told us it 


384 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


was nothing but what was ordinary in the great forest 
at the foot of the mountains, especially when the snow 
lay on the ground ; but they inquired much what kind 
of a guide we had gotten that would venture to bring 
us that way in such a severe season, and told us it was 
very much we were not all devoured. When we told 
them how we placed ourselves, and the horses in the 
middle, they blamed us exceedingly, and told us it 
was fifty to one but we had been all destroyed ; for it 
was the sight of the horses which made the wolves so 
furious, seeing their prey; and that, at other times, 
they are really afraid of a gun ; but the being exces- 
sive hungry, and raging on that account, the eagerness 
to come at the horses had made them senseless of dan- 
ger ; and that if we had not, by the continued fire, 
and at last by the stratagem of the train of powder, 
mastered them, it had been great odds but that we 
had been torn to pieces ; whereas had we been content 
to have sat still on horseback, and fired as horsemen, 
they would not have taken the horses for so much 
their own, when men were on their backs, as other- 
wise ; and withal they told us that, at last, if we had 
stood all together, and left our horses, they would 
have been so eager to have devoured them that we 
might have come off safe, especially having our fire- 
arms in our hands, and being so many in number. 

For my part, I was never so sensible of danger in 
my life ; for seeing above three hundred devils come 
roaring and open-mouthed to devour us, and having 
nothing to shelter us or retreat to, I gave myself over 
for lost ; and as it was, I believe I shall never care to 
cross those mountains again. I think I would much 
rather go a thousand leagues by sea, though I were 
sure to meet with a storm once a week. 


ROBINSON CRUSOE LEAVES HIS ISLAND, 385 


I have nothing uncommon to take notice of in my 
passage through France ; nothing but what other trav- 
ellers have given an account of with much more ad- 
vantage than I can. I travelled from Toulouse to 
Paris, and without any considerable stay came to 
Calais, and landed safe at Dover, the 14th of January, 
after having had a severe cold season to travel in. 

I was now come to the centre of my travels, and 
had in a little time all my new-discovered estate safe 
about me, the bills of exchange which I brought with 
me having been very currently ^ paid. 

My principal guide and privy councillor was my 
good ancient widow ; who, in gratitude for the money 
I had sent her, thought no pains too much, or care too 
great, to employ for me ; and I trusted her so entirely 
with everything that I was perfectly easy as to the 
security of my effects ; and indeed I was very happy 
from my beginning, and now to the end, in the un- 
spotted integrity of this good gentlewoman. 

And now I began to think of leaving my effects 
with this woman and setting out for Lisbon, and so to 
the Brazils. But now another scruple came in my 
way, and that was religion ; for as I had entertained 
some doubts about the Roman religion even while I 
was abroad, especially in my state of solitude, so I 
knew there was no going to the Brazils for me, much 
less going to settle there, unless I resolved to embrace 
the Roman Catholic religion without any reserve ; un- 
less on the other hand I resolved to be a sacrifice to 
my principles, be a martyr for religion, and die in the 
Inquisition. So I resolved to stay at home, and if I 
could find means for it, to dispose of my plantation. 

To this purpose I wrote to my old friend at Lisbon, 
^ That is, paid in good currency. 


886 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


who in return gave me notice that he could easily dis- 
pose of it there ; but that if I thought fit to give him 
leave to offer it in my name to the two merchants, the 
survivors of my trustees, who lived in the Brazils, who 
must fully understand- the value of it, who lived just 
upon the spot, and who I knew were very rich, so 
that he believed they would be fond of buying it, he 
did not doubt but I should make four or five thousand 
pieces of eight the more of it. 

Accordingly I agreed, gave him order to offer it to 
them, and he did so ; and in about eight months more, 
the ship being then returned, he sent me an account 
that they had accepted the offer, and had remitted 
33,000 pieces of eight to a correspondent of theirs at 
Lisbon to pay for it. 

In return, I signed the instrument of sale in the 
form which they sent from Lisbon, and sent it to my 
old man, who sent me bills of exchange for 32,800 
pieces of eight to me, for the estate; reserving the 
payment of a hundred moidores a year to him, the old 
man, during his life, and fifty moidores afterwards to 
his son for his life, which I had promised them, which 
the plantation was to make good as a rent-charge. 
And thus I have given the first part of a life of fortune 
and adventure, a life of Providence’s chequer-work, 
and of a variety which the world will seldom be able 
to show the like of ; beginning foolishly, but closing 
much more happily than any part of it ever gave me 
leave so much as to hope for. 

Any one would think that in this state of compli- 
cated good fortune I was past running any more haz- 
ards ; and so indeed I had been, if other circumstances 
had concurred. But I was inured to a wandering 
life, had no family, not many relations, nor, however 


ROBINSON CRUSOE LEAVES HIS ISLAND. 387 


ricli, had I contracted much acquaintance ; and though 
I had sold my estate in the Brazils, yet I could not 
keep the country out of my head, and had a great 
mind to be upon the. wing again ; especially I could 
not resist the strong inclination I had to see my island, 
and to know if the poor Spaniards were in being there, 
and how the rogues I left there had used them. 

My true friend, the widow, earnestly dissuaded me 
from it, and so far prevailed with me, that for almost 
seven years she prevented my running abroad, during 
which time I took my two nephews, the children of 
one of my brothers, into my care. The eldest, having 
something of his own, I bred up as a gentleman, and 
gave him a settlement of some addition to his estate 
after my decease. The other I put out to a captain of 
a ship, and after five years, finding him a sensible, 
bold, enterprising young fellow, I put him into a good 
ship, and sent him to sea ; and this young fellow after- 
wards drew me in, as old as I was, to farther adven- 
tures myself. 

In the meantime, I in part settled myself here ; for, 
first of all, I married, and that not either to my disad- 
vantage or dissatisfaction, and had three children, two 
sons and one daughter ; but my wife dying, and my 
nephew coming home with good success from a voyage 
to Spain, my inclination to go abroad, and his impor- 
tunity, prevailed, and engaged me to go in his ship as 
a private trader to the East Indies. This was in the 
year 1694. 

In this voyage I visited my new colony in the island, 
saw my successors the Spaniards, had the whole story 
of their lives, and of the villains I left there ; how at 
first they insulted the poor Spaniards, how they after- 
wards agreed, disagreed, united, separated, and how 


388 


ROBINSON CRUSOE, 


at last the Spaniards were obliged to use violence with 
them ; how they were subjected to the Spaniards ; how 
honestly the Spaniards used them ; a history, if it were 
entered into, as full of variety and wonderful acci- 
dents as my own part ; particularly also as to their 
battles with the Caribbeans, who landed several times 
upon the island, and as to the improvement they made 
upon the island itself ; and how five of them made an 
attempt upon the mainland, and brought away eleven 
men and five women prisoners, by which, at my com- 
ing, I found about twenty young children on the 
island. 

Here I stayed about twenty days, left them supplies 
of all necessary things, and particularly of ^rms, jdow- 
der, shot, clothes, tools, and two workmen, which I 
brought from England with me, viz., a carpenter and 
a smith. 

Besides this, I shared the island into parts with 
them, reserved to myself the property of the whole, 
but gave them such parts respectively as they agreed 
on ; and having settled all things with them, and en- 
gaged them not to leave the place, I left them there. 

From thence I touched at the Brazils, from whence 
I sent a bark, which I bought there, with more people, 
to the island ; and in it, besides other supplies, I sent 
seven women, being such as I found proper for service, 
or for wives to such as would take them. As to the 
Englishmen, I promised them to send them some 
women from England, with a good cargo of necessa- 
ries if they would apply themselves to planting ; which 
I afterwards performed ; and the fellows proved very 
honest and diligent after they were mastered, and had 
their properties set apart for them. I sent them also 
from the Brazils five cows, three of them being big 


ROBINSON CRUSOE LEAVES ^^HIS ISLAND. 389 

with calf, some sheep, and some hogs, which, when I 
came again, were considerably increased. 

But all these things, with an account how three 
hundred Caribbees came and invaded them, and ruined 
their plantations, and how they fought with that whole 
number twice, and were at first defeated and three of 
them killed ; but at last a storm destroying their ene- 
mies’ canoes, they famished or destroyed almost all 
the rest, and renewed and recovered the possession of 
their plantation, and still lived upon the island ; — all 
these things, with some very surprising incidents in 
some new adventures of my own, for ten years more, 
I may perhaps give a farther account of hereafter. 









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